China Southern Airlines has commenced flight connecting Guangzhou with Mexico City. The route is the company’s first to Latin America, where Mexican authorities hope the air connection will help boost tourism from China.
“With the inauguration of the flight, we hope to see an increase in the number of Chinese visitors traveling for leisure, but also for business,” Mexico’s deputy minister of tourism, Salvador Sanchez, said at a ceremony at the international airport of Mexico City.
According to Sanchez, tourists from China will grow 50 percent, thanks to the new air link.
The new route, which will operate three times a week, “was mandated by both governments.
China Southern Airlines President Wang Changshun hailed the route as helping to consolidate the carrier’s presence in the Latin American market, and said his company plans to invest further to offer its newfound “potential” Mexican and Latin American customers diverse products.
The 228-passenger Boeing 787 landed in Mexico City at 8:30 a.m. local time on April 11th, after a brief stopover in Vancouver, Canada, and was welcomed on the tarmac with the customary water-cannon salute, as well as a traditional Mexican mariachi band.
Prior to the opening of the new route, the only other air connection between Mexico and China was a Mexico City-to-Shanghai flight operated by Mexican national airline Aeromexico.
