Air China to commence Beijing-Hakodate nonstop service

BEIJING - Air China will inaugurate Beijing-Hakodate nonstop service on July 3, 2015. It takes passengers departing from Beijing just 3-4 hours to get to Hokkaido which boasts the world's most charming night views. The new Beijing - Hakodate route to be opened will further meet Chinese market demand for travel to Japan. On January 19, 2015, Japan relaxed its visa application requirements in favor of Chinese travelers. It is predicted that the "Five-Year Multiple Entry Visa" will bring the number of Chinese travelers to Japan to over 4 million this year. A survey shows that nearly 40% of the Chinese tourists say their "most favorite travel destination in 2015" is Japan, up 10% over the number of respondents who said so in the 2014 survey. The new route will bring the number of Japanese destinations that Air China serves between Mainland China and Japan up to 9, and the other Japanese destinations include Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Sendai, Sapporo and Okinawa. Air China offers over 260 flights per week between the two countries. At the same time, the new route is part of Air China's endeavor to pursue its global strategy and moves to make Beijing the hub of its extensive global route network and expand its presence in Asia. This year, Air China started the Chengdu - Colombo (Sri Lanka) service in February, and will start Beijing - Melbourne service in June. With the Beijing-Hakodate service, Air China's route network in the Asia Pacific region will cover over 20 cities in 2015, including, among others, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong and Taipei. With over 1,000 flights per week, Air China offers a wide range of easy travel options to passengers traveling from other parts of the world to the Asia Pacific region via Beijing. The flights, CA729/CA730 are operated twice a week on Monday and Friday with Boeing 737-800. The outbound flights depart from 12:10 Beijing time and arrive in Hakodate at 16:35 local time; the return flights depart from Hakodate at 17:45 local time and arrive in Beijing at 20:45 Beijing time. sourced:traveldailynews.asia