An Air Changan plane in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Monday (Photo/Courtesy of Air Changan)
A new carrier - Air Changan, a subsidiary of HNA Group - took off on Monday, showing how the western region of the world's second-largest aviation market is heating up.
The maiden flight flew from Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province to Zhuhai in South China's Guangdong Province. Initially, the carrier will serve routes to Zhuhai and Haikou in Hainan Province with Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
Based in Xi'an, the carrier will expand its network under the strategy of "the Belt and Road" initiative in the next five years, as Xi'an is the starting point of the Silk Road.
Hainan Airlines under HNA Group has also opened several routes starting from Xi'an, covering cities such as Paris, Sydney, and Tokyo.
Xi'an has become a hotspot in the western region of China. United Airlines is scheduled to launch service from Xi'an to San Francisco on Tuesday, the city's latest overseas air connection.
Last week, Emirates launched a new service from Dubai to Yinchuan in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Zhengzhou in Central China's Henan Province, two of the fastest-growing cities in the middle west of China, expanding the carrier's destination offerings on the Chinese mainland to five.
