Air China launches Beijing-Pyongyang route

Air China Ltd<601111><753>, the country's flag carrier, launched its first flight from Beijing to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, on Monday, positioning itself the world's only foreign airline to fly regularly to the city.

The Beijing-Pyongyang flight, which was postponed by three months, is set to fly three times a week with Boeing-737s in service, said the carrier in a statement. It also said it could see a rosy outlook of the flight and was confident to the financial potential because of the increasing number of outbound Chinese tourists.

The launch of the route, which had been almost dominated by North Korea's Air Koryo, has filled the gap of China's aviation industry.

China Southern Airline<600029><1055> used to have flights to Pyongyang, but it suspended the route in 2006 after North Korea carried out a nuclear test.