Capital Airlines Resumes Direct Flights Between China and Portugal
With more than 170 passengers on board, a direct flight operated by China's Capital Airlines with an Airbus A330 aircraft was launched on the 31st August 2019 between Lisbon and Beijing, celebrating the resumption of its Portugal-China direct flights.
This resumption illustrates a strong cooperation and friendship between the two countries, said the Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Portugal, Xu Zhida.
Direct flights will facilitate mutual understanding between the two peoples and set up a bridge between the two cultures as well, said the Chinese diplomat, adding that it will inject new vitality into the bilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Filipe Silva, a board member of Tourism of Portugal, said that the resumption of direct flights will certainly bring more Chinese tourists into Portugal.
According to Silva, the number of Chinese tourist arrivals have already increased at a rate of 20% over the past several years.
Three round trips are scheduled every week on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, with the flights leaving Lisbon at 10:45 PM local time.
Capital Airlines opened the Lisbon-Beijing-Hangzhou route on the 26th July 2017, the first flight between Portugal and China; However, the company suspended the flights last October.
