china southern airlines opened a direct flight from shenzhen to jakarta, indonesia, yesterday, the first between the two cities.
the flight, cz8353, operates every monday, wednesday, friday and sunday. it departs from shenzhen at 7:45 p.m. and arrives in jakarta at 11:20 p.m. the return flight, cz8354, leaves at 12:20 a.m. and arrives in shenzhen at 6:10 a.m. every monday, tuesday, thursday and saturday. all times are local time.
shenzhen party chief ma xing-rui, mayor xu qin, and wang changshun, general manager of china southern airlines, attended the launch ceremony.
the opening of the flight is an implementation of the consensus reached with jakarta during a visit by a shenzhen delegation headed by ma in may.
"it marks another step for shenzhen in its effort to be an international city," xu said at the ceremony yesterday.
wang said opening more international routes in shenzhen will serve shenzhen's social and economic development.
indonesia, an important country under china's belt and road initiative, has been keeping active trade ties with shenzhen.
shenzhen enterprises like huawei and zte have operations in jakarta, and shenzhen enterprises have also set up an industrial park in indonesia. the exchanges will be further improved with the opening of the flight, whose trip takes about five hours.
"huawei employees will benefit from the direct flight as they don't need to transfer flights in hong kong," said huang, an employee with the business traveling department of huawei said. "huawei has set up an innovation center in jakarta. it also has a plant there. indonesia has become an important base for huawei in southeast asia,"
according to china southern airlines, during the initial promotional period of operation, a round trip between shenzhen and jakarta will cost 1,100 yuan (us$175) before taxes and fees. the taxes and fees are 820 yuan.
china southern airlines now operates 12 overseas routes (including routes to taiwan china) from shenzhen. statistics from the shenzhen international airport showed that turnover of international passengers reached 1.48 million in the first eight months of the year.
air china is planning to open routes to melbourne and los angeles next month.
united airlines is planning a route between shenzhen and san francisco, and hainan airlines will open flights between shenzhen and auckland, new zealand, this november.
according to the city's 13th five-year plan, shenzhen will open 48 international routes by 2020 and passenger turnover will reach 48 million a year.
