China Southern Airlines Launches Riyadh-Beijing Direct Flights

China Southern Airlines has launched direct flights between Riyadh and Beijing. Their first scheduled passenger service connecting the Chinese mainland and Saudi Arabia took off this week; the flight was operated by an Airbus A330-300 aircraft and carried 240 passengers.

The direct flight is scheduled to fly twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The flight takes 10 hours to go from Beijing Daxing International Airport to King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, while the return flight takes approximately nine hours.

This comes in line with Chinese initiatives to strengthen connections with countries and regions aligned with the Belt and Road initiative, a global development strategy introduced by the Chinese government in 2013. China Southern has introduced 14 non-stop international and regional routes from Beijing Daxing to destinations around the world, including London, Amsterdam, and eight cities within the Belt and Road Initiative countries and regions, providing 74 round-trip flights every week.