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Eastern Airline to open line to Kathmandu
By Li Yingqing and Guo Anfei (China Daily Yunnan Bureau)
Updated: 2009-09-18 22:39

The China Eastern airline will launch non-stop international flights to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, on September 20, 2009.

The route is the third route leading to South Asia from Yunnan, joining existing flights to Dhaka and Calcutta.

The vice general manager of the Yunnan Branch of China Eastern, Li Junming said the initial plan is to have flights every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday night. Taking off from Kunming at 22.20 Beijing time, the Boeing 737 plane would arrive in Kathmandu at 00.55 Beijing time. The flight, numbered MU757/8, will cover a distance of 1037 kilometers.

The return flight would take off from Kathmandu at 23:45 local time. The flight time is in line with Kathmandu travel habits because the clock is 2 hours and 15 minutes ahead of Beijing.

The Yunnan Branch of China Eastern has also launched promotional discounts, for example, the price of people traveling in a group is only 2,100 yuan. They also plan to launch other discounts and incentives depending on the market's reception to their new services.