Prague starts a new direct airline with China

Prague has a direct air link with China since February 2015. Besides airlines to Beijing and Shanghai the aircrafts of Sichuan Airlines will fly to the Czech capital also from the city of Chengdu. The first aircraft landed at the Ruzyně airport at Thursday noontime.

In the present there are two charter flights with landing scheduled on Thursday 25^th of February and Saturday 5^th of March. “The negotiations are still in progress, but the decision about further forms of the Prague – Chengdu air link depends on gaining permission from Chinese authorities,” said Marika Janoušková, the speaker of Prague airport, at the beginning of February.

The first aircraft on the new direct Prague – Chengdu airline took off from the Václav Havel Airport in Prague on Tuesday after the noon. It was an Airbus A330 with setting for more than 200 passengers, however it is able to contain even more than 300 people.

Chinese capital is therefore connected with the capital of Chinese inland province of Sichuan, which has more than 11 million inhabitants and it is considered to be one of the industrial centres of China.

Air link between Prague and Shanghai will function since the 2^nd of April. Aircrafts of China Eastern Airlines will fly the route three times a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Since the end of last year’s September there is a direct air link between Prague and Beijing launched by Hainan Airlines.

Generous tourists

The amount of passengers between Prague and China reached 50 000 last year, year-to-year it is 46 per cent more. Shanghai (22 300 passengers), Beijing (18 800) and Canton (2900) are the most popular destinations.

Chinese tourists spent most money in Czech among all foreign visitors from non-EU countries for the first time.

Their share on the expenses of tourists from non-EU countries has risen to 23 per cent, while in 2014 it was 14 per cent. This is apparent from the data of Global Blue company, which provides VAT recur for tourists from non-EU countries. There were 285 000 Chinese coming to Czech last year, year-to-year there were 74 000 more.