Wednesday 18 February 2015

Lao Airlines launches twice-weekly flights to Changzhou from Vientiane

Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
                 / KUCINTA SETIA
Distributed to All Press & Travel Professionals



Lao Airlines has become Southeast Asia's first airline to open direct flights to the homeland of Chinese poet and essayist Su Dongpo (Su Shi; 1036-1011), Changzhou in Jiangsu Province, from Vientiane, Laos.  Therefore, Vientiane has become Changzhou Benniu Airport's first international flight destination.

Lao Airlines' first direct flight to Changzhou begins on 16 February 2015 at 8 am when it leaves Vientiane and arrives in Changzhou Benniu Airport at 11.30 am. At 12.30 pm, it leaves Changzhou for Vientiane and returns to Vientiane at 2.30 pm with Chinese tourists spending their Lunar New Year holidays in Laos today.

Lao Airlines operates the new services on Mondays and Fridays. The airline signed a contract with Changzhou Weitali National Air Travel Service in November 2014 to market and launch the flights.

Changzhou is Jiangsu's important industrial centre for textiles, food processing, engineering and high technology. 

Tourist attractions of Changzhou include the "Ruins of Yancheng" which comprise the remains of a walled city founded over 3000 years ago in the Wujin district of Changzhou, one of five palaces housing the leaders of the so-called "Kingdom of Celestial Palace" near the People No. 1 Hospital, China Dinosaur Park, amusement park CC Joyland, the well-known Zen Buddhist temple Tianning Temple and Changzhou's sunken city and areas of archaeological ruins from the Spring and Autumn Period.

China is the biggest source of tourists for Lao Airlines followed by South Korea, Europe, Thailand and Singapore. In 2014, 750,887 tourists flew with Lao Airlines, of which 103,400 are tourists from China. Including Chinese tourists from Bangkok and Singapore, the number of Chinese visitors entering Laos has increased by about 72 per cent, from 245,033 visitors in 2013 to 422,440 visitors, according to statistics from the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.

Besides Changzhou, Lao Airlines also operates weekly flights to Chengdu from Luang Prabang. It operates weekly scheduled flights to Kunming, Guangzhou and Jinghong (Xishuangbanna) from Vientiane, thrice-weekly scheduled flights to Singapore and daily scheduled flights to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi from Vientiane, Pakse and Savannakhet.

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