The China Southern Airlines is to launch flights between Beijing
and Lagos, the first China-Africa passenger air service by a
Chinese air carrier, the company said Wednesday.
Using an Airbus 330 airliner, China Southern will link China's
capital with the commercial and industrial center of Nigeria in
western Africa.
The flights are set to take off at 11:40 PM every Monday,
Wednesday and Saturday and arrive at 11:10 AM (local time) the next
day.
Insiders say the new route will meet the needs of growing
Sino-African diplomatic and trade ties and facilitate common
development of the Chinese and African economies.
The announcement for the new route came just ahead of the
Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, scheduled
on November 4-5.
With a theme of "friendship, peace, cooperation and
development," the Beijing Summit will be the largest and
highest-level gathering of Chinese and African leaders since the
establishment of Sino-African diplomatic relations in the
1950s.
Sino-African trade is estimated to exceed US$50 billion this
year, almost five times that of 2000.
(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2006)
