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Sanya and Hong Kong resume direct flights halted for three years due to COVID

The route's first flight was made by Hainan Airlines on a Boeing 737-800

© Liu Qicheng/Sanya Daily

HAIKOU /China/, March 2. /TASS/. Chinese resort city Sanya (southern Hainan province) and China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong) have restored direct passenger flights after a three-year break due to anti-COVID restrictions. This was reported by the Sanya Daily newspaper.

A plane carrying tourists on a direct flight from Hong Kong landed at Sanya Phoenix International Airport on February 28. This is the first direct flight on this route for Sanya since the easing of anti-COVID restrictions that had been in effect for the past three years. The flight was made by a Boeing 737-800 aircraft belonging to Hainan Airlines. The flight took about an hour and a half.

The newspaper reporter noticed two foreigners among the tourists disembarking the plane. One was a Russian woman named Maria. "Very fast and very comfortable. Just an hour and a half and you're there," the newspaper quotes a Russian tourist who works in China and went on a trip to Hong Kong and upon learning that there is a direct flight to Sanya, decided to take advantage of the opportunity to relax by the sea.

Local authorities and Phoenix Airport have done a lot of preparatory work to arrange this flight, including streamlining customs clearance procedures. The resumption of flights on this route is important to boost tourism exchanges and economic development in the region.

Hainan Airlines resumed direct passenger flights to Hong Kong from Haikou on November 16, 2022 and began operating Haikou-Bangkok flights on February 20 this year.

Hainan Airlines has resumed flights on many international routes. These include flights from Beijing, Brussels, Moscow, Belgrade, Berlin and Manchester. The airline now offers flights from Shanghai to Tel Aviv and from Chongqing to Rome and Madrid. In the near future, Hainan Airlines intends to launch flights to such destinations as Beijing - Tel Aviv, Shenzhen - Phnom Penh, Beijing - St. Petersburg, Haikou - Singapore and Haikou - Macau.

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