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Scandinavian Airlines to open Stockholm-Beijing flight
Airline currently flies to China from Denmark.
BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
March 28, 2006
Scandinavian Airlines is to introduce a non-stop flight between Stockholm and Beijing in September 2006, the first of its flights between China and Sweden. The carrier will operate five weekly flights between the two capital cities and fly an Airbus 340 aircraft.
At present, Scandinavian Airlines flies from Copenhagen, the Danish capital, to Shanghai and Beijing. The Stockholm-Beijing route will the airline's third route, Scandinavian Airlines said in a release here today. China is one of the fastest-growing markets for Scandinavian Airlines, and the introduction of the new flight is to tap its increasing growth potential.
Scandinavian Airlines plans to invest heavily in the Chinese market, recruit 34 Chinese cabin crew this year, offer Chinese language in-flight magazines and launch a website in Chinese.
An increase in Chinese tourists to northern Europe, which follows an approved destination status agreement signed between the two countries in 2004, has helped the airline's China revenue grow by 20 per cent in 2005.
In the first two months of this year, the number of tourist passengers jumped 60 per cent while the number of business-class clients rose 35 percent from last year. On the Shanghai route, Scandinavian Airlines witnessed a 20 per cent increase in the number of passengers, compared with the same period of last year.
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