China's Eastern Airlines will begin direct flights from Shanghai
to New York on Friday.
The maiden flight, MU587, will take off at 6:30 p.m. from Pudong
Airport in Shanghai and land at 7:45 p.m. local time in New
York.
The airline will operate four direct flights from Shanghai to
New York weekly and flights will be served by an Airbus 340-600
with a capacity of 400 passengers.
According to the ticket sales, 90 percent of the tickets for the
first flight have been bought.
The new route will remove the need to travel via the cities of
Tokyo, Seoul or Beijing flights.
Shanghai is the second Chinese city after Beijing to offer
direct flights to New York.
(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2006)