Regular flights to be launched between Japan's Aomori, China's Hangzhou

Japan's Aomori prefectural government announced on Thursday that regular flights would be launched between the prefecture's capital city Aomori and China's Hangzhou next January by Beijing Capital Airlines.

The round-trip flights will the first between the northern Tohoku city and a Chinese city and will operate once a week, using A320 aircraft with 174 seats. All of the seats will be economic class.

In an attempt to attract more Chinese tourists, the Aomori government also announced that it will list 17 million yen (139,400 U.S. dollars) in the FY2015 supplementary budget to support the development of travel agencies and publicize the prefecture's tourist attractions in China.

Besides the Aomori-Hangzhou line, regular flights will also be launched between Hakodate and Hangzhou next January by Beijing Capital Airlines, the Hokkaido prefectural government announced on the same day.

As the number of foreign visitors to Japan this year marked an estimated record high of 16.32 million as of the end October, with tourists from the Chinese mainland accounting for about 26 percent of them, local governments of Japan are expanding their efforts to attract more Chinese tourists. Endit