Flights linking China and its Asian neighbor India will begin operating on March 28, China Eastern Airlines Co., Ltd. announced Friday.

Gao Pei, manager of the Marketing Department of the airlines company says the weekly flights will link Beijing and New Delhi and Shanghai and New Delhi.

The Beijing-New Delhi flight will leave every Monday at 20:00 (Beijing time) and the arrival time will be 2:20 the next day.

The return flight will leave at 3:40 Tuesday from New Delhi andarrive at 9:40 the same day.

The Shanghai-New Delhi flight will leave Pudong International Airport every Thursday at 22:00 hours with the arrival time at 4:20 the next day.

The return flight will begin at 5:40 Friday and the arrival time will be 11:40.

The airline company is also scheduled to start a daily flight service between Beijing and Tokyo as of April 18.

Direct Flight to Link China, India

China Eastern Airlines Co., Ltd. will open the first direct link between China and India at the end of March, a company executive said in Shanghai.

According to an agreement between the two countries' civil aviation authorities, China Eastern Airlines will fly twice a week from Shanghai to Delhi, with a stopover in Beijing, said General Manager Liu Shaoyong.

The decision to open a direct link between China and India has resulted from the constant expansion of bilateral cooperation and exchanges in many areas. Two-way trade has maintained two-digit growth over the recent years, with last year's total reaching three billion US dollars.

( People's Daily February 9, 2002)