The direct passenger flight linking Belgium and China was opened on Thursday.

 

On Thursday afternoon, a Boeing 767-300 ER passenger plane, with flight number HU 491, arrived at the Brussels International Airport, making a successful maiden flight linking China's Beijing and Brussels.

 

The flight was operated by China's Hainan Airline in code sharing partnership with local SN Brussels Airlines.

 

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Herman De Croo, President of the Belgian House of Representatives, came to the airport to greet the maiden flight.

 

Later on the same day, the first flight from Brussels to Beijing, with flight number HU 492, was also launched. SN Brussels said all 233 seats on board were sold out on the Belgian market in only five hours after the sales of tickets opened.

 

The new direct flight service is scheduled four times a week on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)