Air China to fly direct from Beijing to New York

BEIJING (AP) _ China's flagship airline will commence its first direct flights from Beijing to New York's John F. Kennedy International airport, the government news agency and New York-New Jersey

Thursday, July 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BEIJING (AP) _ China's flagship airline will commence its first direct flights from Beijing to New York's John F. Kennedy International airport, the government news agency and New York-New Jersey Port Authority said Thursday.

Air China will begin the thrice-weekly service beginning Sept. 27, the Xinhua News Agency said, quoting Li Jiaxiang, a senior airline official. Pasquale DiFulco, a Port Aurthority spokesman, confirmed the Chinese report. At present, United Airlines has the only direct New York City/Beijing service, he said.

China Airlines, Taiwan's national airline, has weekly roundtrip flights from Taipei to New York.

Xinhua said Air China's Boeing 747-400 aircraft would leave at 2 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Beijing's Capital Airport and land at JFK at 3:30 p.m. the same day. Return flights will leave JFK at 5:30 p.m. and arrive in Beijing at 7 p.m. the next day.

Air China has scheduled a test flight for Aug. 16, Xinhua said.