ATHENS , Aug. 28 (Xinhua)-- Chinese flagship airline Air China is launching direct flights between Beijing and Athens this September in cooperation with the Athens International Airport (AIA), one more landmark in the bilateral ties which is expected to help bring people of the two nations closer.
On Wednesday, an Air China AirbusA330-200 aircraft will land at AIA for the first time directly from Beijing, Chinese and Greek officials told a press conference at the Chinese embassy in Athens on Monday.
The plane with a 237 seating capacity will be from now on connecting Beijing and Athens twice a week, each on Wednesday and Saturday and vice versa without any stopovers.
Since 2011 , Air China which opened its offices in Athens back in 2005, was operating a Beijing-Athens line with a short stopover in Munich every Wednesday and Saturday.
The introduction of the direct flights was warmly welcomed by representatives of both sides on Monday as a significant step that will help further advance the Sino-Greek relations, increase the number of visitors in two-way tourism and promote people-to-people exchanges.