A flight from Cheongju City of South Korea arrived at the Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airport at 19:50 on June 7, 2023, marking the resumption of the international passenger flights between Zhangjiajie and Cheongju. This is the third air route to South Korea that Zhangjiajie has resumed after another two routes to Pusan and Daegu.

The Zhangjiajie-Cheongju regular flights are operated by the Sichuan Airlines on A321 aircraft. There is one round-trip flight available every Wednesday and Saturday between June 7 and October 28 this year. A single-way trip takes 3 and a half hours. The flight number and time are as follows: Zhangjiajie-Cheongju 3U3703 departs from Zhangjiajie at 11:20 and arrives at Cheongju at 14:55; and, Zhangjiajie-Cheongju 3U3704 departs from Cheongju at 16:05 and arrives at Zhangjiajie at 19:50.

As the inbound tourism market recovers rapidly, Zhangjiajie's tourism has seen a prominent surge. The Zhangjiajie-Hanoi route, Zhangjiajie's first resumed international passenger flight route after three-year suspension, reopened on April 7. Within less than two months, five international passenger routes respectively to Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Bangkok of Thailand, and Busan, Daegu, Cheongju of South Korea have been resumed. Three routes respectively from Zhangjiajie to Muan, Incheon, and Jeju of South Korea will be recovered this month, and a new international passenger routes from Zhangjiajie to Osaka of Japan will be launched later. The number of operating international routes is expected to recover to the pre-pandemic level during the peak period of 2019.

At present, Zhangjiajie airport handles 20 international flights weekly on average, and this figure is estimated to exceed 40 later. As of May 31, Zhangjiajie airport has handled 168 international flights and 24,100 inbound and outbound passenger trips this year, while the average passenger load factor stood at 70.9 percent. Compared with similar destination cities such as Guilin, Huangshan, Lijiang, and Sanya, Zhangjiajie has taken the lead in international flights recovery, featuring early resumption, large amount, busy schedule, large passenger throughput, and fine recovery momentum. It is estimated that the international passenger throughput of the Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airport will hit 200,000 for the whole year.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn