A plane of Air China, with 76 passengers aboard, took off from the airport at 0:30 hours on Saturday in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and was expected to touch down at Ho Chi Minh City of Viet Nam three hours later.

It is the first regular air route ever inaugurated linking Nanning and members on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since the Beijing-Nanning-Hanoi air route was suspended of service three years ago.

Flight services on the air route, which actually starts from Beijing, are available on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in Nanning, according to Jia Hangyu, general manager of Air China Nanning Business Branch.

"It will take about one year's time to turn this air route into a profitable one, and we'll open more new air routes connecting Chinese cities and those in other ASEAN members such as Phnom Penh of Cambodia," said Jia.

"The efforts prove that Air China has started to attach greater attention to marketing in ASEAN members alongside an accelerated construction of China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone," Jia added.

ASEAN was founded in 1967 and now groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. China shares border with Viet Nam at Guangxi.

Source: Xinhua