China's second-biggest and its international airline, Air China has started a direct
service between Beijing and New Delhi. The service will be available three times a week between the capitals of the two countries.

There is a growing interest among both the Chinese people and Indians to visit each others' countries - especially to the capitals. We want to tap that growing market, said Zhao Quanzhen, Country Manager for Air China in India.

Passenger traffic between India and China grew by 20 percent to 600,000 in 2005 and we feel that there will be further interest - both for tourists and business people - as economic
linkages between our countries develop, Zhao added

"Next year, we intend to make this a daily service and shift the operations to either Airbus A330 or A340 aircraft or a Boeing 777. We will initially have 18 business class and 192 economy class seats," he announced.

At present another Chinese airline - China Eastern - operates between the two countries,
connecting New Delhi and Shanghai. "But there is enough market for both the airlines to
have a decent load factor," Zhao said.

The company is also planning to add a new service to Mumbai soon, and looking
closely at Chennai and Bangalore.