A new air route between Shymkent, acity in Kazakhstan, and Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, was inaugurated on Tuesday.

A plane with 11 passengers aboard touched down at 7 p.m. in Urumqi after it took off from Shymkent at 4:30 p.m. The plane returned to Kazakhstan after one hour's stay in Urumqi, said a source from the Urumqi International Airport.

Scant air company of Kazakhstan, operator of Shymkent-Urumqi air route, is the second Kazakhstani airways in offering regular flight service to Chinese cities, following Astana, another Kazakhstani air company, which has been operating a regular flightservice from Almaty of Kazakhstan to Beijing.

Scant President Vladimir I.Denissov was upbeat about the prospects of the newly opened air route.

"Exchange between China and Kazakstan has been on the rise in recent years," said the president, "More tourists will come to visit China this year as the Olympic Games will be held in Beijingin August, and many residents in Shymkent have relatives in Xinjiang, which are important conditions for full flight occupancy."

Currently, the Shymkent-Urumqi air flight service is only available on Tuesday. But in summer, the number of flights betweenthe two cities will be doubled each week.

(Xinhua April 3, 2008)