• Air China to open Hangzhou- Frankfurt route  -- Air China, the country's major carrier, will launch a new route next Tuesday from the eastern city of Hangzhou to Frankfurt in Germany.
  
  The flight with Airbus 330 will depart from Hangzhou, a city famous for its beautiful scenery, every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9 p.m. via Beijing, arriving in Frankfurt the next day at 6 a.m. local time, said Huang Weilin, general manager of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport.
  
  Return flights will operate on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he said.
  
  The flight will operate daily from Jan. 1, 2010, he added.
  
  The airport is expected to launch Hangzhou- Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) route in December, Hangzhou- Dubai- Madrid route in January 2010 and Hangzhou- Bangkok route in March 2010.
  Oct. 22, 2009 (Xinhua)
   
• Okay Airways to launch Tianjin-Yanji flight - To meet the summer high season demand, Okay Airways is launching a roundtrip flight from Tianjin to the border city of Yanji in Jilin province from July 15. The flight will take off each Wednesday and Friday from Tianjin at 18:00, and return from Yanji at 20:50. Okay Airways will also increase the frequency of flights to popular tourist destinations such as Dalian and Zhangjiajie during the high summer season. (China Hospitality News July 3, 2009) 
• China to open direct flight between Changsha, Osaka. Xinhua News
• World's second highest airport opens in SW China. Xinhua News

The world's second highest airport, Kangding, opened on Wednesday in a predominantly Tibetan region of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

At an altitude of 4,280 meters, it is second only to Qamdo in Tibet Autonomous Region which sits 4,334 meters above sea level.

The airport allowed for a 35-minute trip from Kangding, capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, to Chengdu, the provincial capital, compared with a six-hour road journey, said Kangding Airport Co., Ltd. general manager Fan Yongzheng.

A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-700 from Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, traveling via Chengdu, was the first flight to land at the airport on Wednesday morning.

Other scheduled flights were yet to be determined, Fan said.

Sitting between the Dadu and Yalong rivers, both tributaries of the Yangtze, Kangding is a popular tourist destination.

"We are building highways connecting the airport to the main tourist attractions in Garze," said Hu Bin, vice head of the Garzeprefecture.

"On completion, tourists will be able to arrive at the scenic spots within two hours."

Construction of the airport, 40 kilometers from Kangding town, started in September 2006. The 4,000-meter runway is designed to meet the demands of A319 and Boeing 737-300 aircraft. It is expected to handle 330,000 passengers and 1,980 tons of cargo and mail annually. (Xinhua News Oct. 22, 2008).