BEIJING: State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines has launched new direct flights connecting Riyadh and Jeddah with the Chinese capital Beijing, Saudi state news agency SPA said on Sunday.

The inaugural flight from Jeddah to Beijing took off on Friday, with the Riyadh-Beijing flight scheduled to commence on Sunday, SPA said.

PIA resumes passenger flights to and from Chinese capital

Also, Pakistan Inter­national Airlines (PIA) has resumed its weekly passenger flight for China with the arrival of PK-854 at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Sunday afternoon.

The national flag carrier will operate one weekly flight from Islamabad to Beijing and back every Sunday with departure from Beijing at 21:15, PIA Country Manager Bilal Afzal said.

He announced that passengers travelling by PIA could now fly from Pakistan to 16 Chinese cities via Beijing in partnership with Air China. These Chinese cities include Guan­gzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, Chon­gqing, Changchun, Hangz­hou and Harbin.

Mr Afzal said over 200 passengers took the Islamabad-bound flight from Beijing on Sunday evening. He said PIA was offering a 20 per cent discount for students on flights between Pakistan and China.

The one-way fare from Beijing to Islamabad was 3,814 Chinese yuan (around Rs150,000) and the fare for the return ticket was 5,685 yuan (around Rs223,000), he said.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2023