China's first private airline starts maiden flight

The first passenger flight of Okay Airways takes off at 9:00am from Binhai International Airport in Tianjin March 11, 2005. (newsphoto)

China's first privately run airline, Okay Airways, started a maiden flight on Friday from its base at Binhai International Airport in Tianjin Municipality near Beijing.

Carrying a total of 76 passengers including dozens of journalists, a 737-900 plane leased from the Republic of Korea by the company will fly Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, via Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.

Han Jing, a ranking executive with the company, said Okay mainly engages in air cargo and passenger charter services, express services and ground distribution.

China's aviation industry grew faster than the economy as a whole. But its civil aviation sector was blocked to private capital over the past half of century. The liberalization of the sector is part of China's effort to promote private economy's development.

To limit monopolies over the aviation industry, a regulation was recently issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet, to permit private capital into the nation's airline sector. Okay was given a permit for operation by the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) last Friday.