The Chinese airline Hainan Airlines announces that it will resume operating its direct flights to Shenzhen. The flights will be operated twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays starting from September 15 on state-of-the-art Boeing 787 aircraft. The flight path is the short southern route over Saudi Arabia and Oman.

The company, the fourth largest in China, entered Israel by storm in 2016 but completely suspended its activities in the country in February 2020 after the outbreak of the global corona crisis. Now, with the return of the line to Shenzhen, alongside the direct lines that Hainan already operates between Tel Aviv and Beijing and Shanghai, the Chinese are back in a big way with three direct lines to three different destinations in China and dozens of onward destinations in Asia and the giant country.

The line to Beijing is operated twice a week on Sundays and Wednesdays, and the line to Shanghai on Tuesdays and Thursdays. With the addition of the flights to Shenzhen, the company increases the frequency of its flights to China to 6 weekly flights.

The company’s announcement regarding the direct line in April China removed the latest corona restrictions, including the requirement for corona tests for those entering China. Today, travelers to China are only required to provide a health declaration. At the same time, the company predicts that China will soon add Israel to the list of approved countries for Chinese tourist groups to visit.

The first flight to Shenzhen will take off only ten months after the company’s return to Israel. The dizzying pace of opening the lines characterizes the Chinese company and it seems that the demand in China for flights to Israel is expected to return to pre-corona levels sooner than expected.

Shenzhen, known as the “Chinese Silicon Valley” is a very significant business and technological center in China. The proximity of the city to Guangzhou – the global manufacturing center – and Hong Kong, makes it a very important destination for the airline.

The CEO of Hainan Airlines Israel Andy Wei said: “We are very excited to announce the opening of another route to China – Tel Aviv-Shenzhen. The Israeli market exceeded all our expectations in the days before the Corona and we are convinced that the opening of the line to Shenzhen, which is close to Guangzhou, along with the lifting of the Corona restrictions in China, will bring back Chinese tourists and businessmen to Israel, and Israelis to China. We are ready to provide passengers with the best service and look forward to our first flight to Shenzhen, the technological capital of China, on September 15. We are proud to make all of China accessible to the Israeli passenger with our connecting flights and offer amazing solutions for connections to many destinations in Asia, including Tokyo and Bangkok”.