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Direct flights link Xi'an, Almaty

Xinhua, March 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

A new direct flight linking northwest China's Xi'an City with Almaty in Kazakhstan was launched on Thursday.

The flight departs Almaty every Thursday at noon and arrives in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, at 4:20 p.m (all times are Beijing time). The return flight departs from Xi'an on the same day each week at 5:20 p.m. and arrives in Almaty at 9:40 p.m., according to the China West Airport Group(CWAG).

The flight is operated by Kazakhstan's SCAT Airlines using a Boeing 737.

The new air route connects Xi'an, the starting point of the ancient Silk Road, and Almaty, one of the biggest trading centers in Central Asia, and will serve as one step in developing an "air Silk Road," said sources with CWAG.

Shaanxi Province has become a major hub for China's Belt and Road Initiative and a frontier for China's opening to the outside world.

The ancient Silk Road was a land trade route that ran northwest from Xi'an, then known as Chang'an, and through China's Gansu Province, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Central and Western Asia before reaching the Mediterranean. Endi