China’s airline to launch regular flight from Urumqi to Lahore in June

BEIJING: China Southern will launch regular flights between Urumqi, the capital of Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the Pakistani city of Lahore in June this year.

China Southern Airlines will launch 11 new domestic routes in the region, according to Xu Jianmin, vice sales manager of the company’s Xinjiang branch on Tuesday.

Five of the routes, according to Pakistan’s state-run wire service, will connect regional cities such as Yining, Karamay and Korla with cities in central and southern parts of China.

Urumqi Air, an affiliate of Hainan Airlines, will add six routes in the new summer-autumn aviation season started from Sunday. It plans to operate new international routes to central and western Asian countries.

In 2017, a record high of more than 21.5 million passengers travelled through Urumqi International Airport, the biggest airport in Xinjiang.