Air China increases flights on Beijing-Islamabad sector

E-Paper | April 27, 2026

Air China, China's national flag carrier, has decided to increase flights on the Beijing-Islamabad-Karachi route from four a week to seven starting October 29.

Air China had launched the route between China and Pakistan in October 2016, starting with three flights per week. More than 120,000 trips on the route were recorded till September this year.

Hu Haitao, manager of Air China's Islamabad office, said in a promotional event on Thursday that the increased flights will "better serve the exchanges between China and Pakistan in trade and culture."

Meanwhile, Zhao Lijian, ministerial counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, said that the development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has boosted the two countries' ties in politics, economy and science, providing a good opportunity for Air China to extend its business in Pakistan.

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Philosopher (from Japan)

Oct 06, 2017 10:14pm

Please never use Air China. I had a very bad experience while traveling from Japan to Pakistan.

Recommend 0

Vikas

Oct 06, 2017 11:06pm

@Philosopher (from Japan) Oh I agree. Every one should use PIA. most economical. Specially the standing seats. And you can get many things besides alcohol to quench your addiction. Just have to ask the right person and look into the right places within the aircrafts.

Recommend 0

Khalid iqbal

Oct 06, 2017 11:10pm

You should give your advice as to what Pakistani travelers want ,rather than put down some airline .

Recommend 0

Salman

Oct 07, 2017 12:24am

Thanks China!

Recommend 0

RealDeal

Oct 07, 2017 02:20am

@Salman what happened to PIA, THE national carrier

Recommend 0

aukhan

Oct 07, 2017 03:23am

I travelled Air China New York to Islamabad last week. It was ok.

Recommend 0

Visitor

Oct 07, 2017 03:32am

How many pakistani passengers and how many chinese passengers are on these flights? Probably that number will tell a story.

Recommend 0

Nadeem orakzai

Oct 07, 2017 04:47am

@Philosopher (from Japan) well paid for your opinion

Recommend 0

MUHAMMAD

Oct 07, 2017 05:00am

@Vikas PIA is still better then your Air India (I know many Indians who have used PIA to travel back to Mumbai and Delhi from Middle East esp Saudi Arabia as the same provided them more frequent connections compared to Air India and they use to prefer PIA's service compared to Air India) . PS we Pakistanis in general are not a drinking nation that we would care about alcohol. Finally PIA is not that bad, I use it regularly to travel between Karachi and Toronto and the flight and service is pretty decent

Recommend 0

Ch beg mulla

Oct 07, 2017 06:48am

Good for one China. They have direct road in cpec why do they need flights

Recommend 0

Ramay

Oct 07, 2017 07:27am

So where is PIA 4th worst airline in the world.All routs given to PM airline.PIA flights full w/ free passengers of 12000 employees of politically appointed dull & duffer employees, only 23 very old planes in service, these free family members of the corrupt PIA employees even traveled standing in ills recently to Jeddah, a 5 hrs flight.True 4th worst airline in world, PIA.

Recommend 0

Khalid Khan

Oct 07, 2017 09:19am

This is good. The CPEC will act as a catalyst for airline industry in Pakistan. A positive correlation exists between economic growth, education and aviation development. The sheer magnitude of economics behind he project and the influx of Chinese expats in Pakistan ,and vice versa, in the next 3-5 years to come will see new route development and a high rate of growth in passenger numbers between the two countries. Eventually we may see Pak-China market overtake the current Pak-Saudi/UAE air passenger annual movement and will also encourage new domestic routes to be developed.

Recommend 0

Desi

Oct 07, 2017 02:26pm

Chinese services are cheap and not bad

Recommend 0

Ali

Oct 07, 2017 10:14pm

Air China starting daily flights to Pakistan. Excellent. China is making great strides in civil aviation. The number of Chinese airlines is growing, there are 100 new airports being built in China. Beijing's most modern new airport will be ready next year. China has made its own beautiful airliner C-919, which has received over 600 orders already. Airbus has set up final assembly plant in China and Boeing will do so very soon. Perhaps PIA should be leased out to China, as our politicians have made a mess of this great national flag carrier. PIA had created Emirates in the 1980s becoming one of the 'best' in the world, just see where is PIA and Emirates today?

Recommend 0

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