“Direct air passenger services to Budapest are being launched from two more Chinese cities, placing the Hungarian capital in the number one position within the Central European region”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian public media from Shanghai on Tuesday.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister made the announcement following a meeting with the President and provincial directors of Chinese airline China Eastern. The new air passenger services will be linking the Hungarian capital to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in Western China, and Xi’an, the capital of the north-eastern Chinese province of Shaanxi.

“There is huge competition in Central Europe to see which country can better attract Chinese tourists, particularly in view of the fact that according to statistics Chinese tourists are among the highest spending tourists, and accordingly can contribute significantly to the economic growth of the host country”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted. “Since Chinese tourists favour cities to which they can fly directly, there is also competition between our region’s major cities with regard to air passenger services”, he added, explaining: “Prague has always led the rankings so far, in view of the fact that the Czech capital can be accessed from various points in China with ten air passenger services-a-week”.

“There have been seven available to date in the case of Budapest, but from January the Hungarian capital will be taking over the number one spot from Prague because, thanks to  the two new air passenger services being launched by China Eastern, the number of weekly flight between Budapest and China will be increasing to 11.

The Minister also emphasised that Xi’an and Chengdu are important bastions of China’s western region, which is regarded as one of the engines of the country’s economic growth, and the new air passenger services could also give greater impetus to economic cooperation between the two countries.

With relation to the destinations of the new flights, Mr. Szijjártó said that the 11 million strong city of Chengdu is home, amongst others, to the headquarters of major information technology and biotechnology companies, while in Xi’an, which has 12 million inhabitants, the service sector represents the main sector of the city’s economy.

China Eastern, which is based in Shanghai, is the second largest airline in China after Air China based on its passenger traffic. The company, which has a history of over thirty years, has a fleet of over 550 aircraft.

(MTI)