Mexico and China direct flights will officially resume between the two countries starting next May 11, Chinese ambassador Zhang Run reported this Sunday.
“I would like to announce good news to Mexican friends: Thanks to the efforts of both parties, the direct flight between China and Mexico. Starting May 11, China Southern Airlines will open the flight Shenzhen-Mexico City-Tijuana-Shenzhen!”, noted the diplomat in his X account.
Since March 2023, it had been announced that by April 17 of that year, China’s largest airline, China Southern Airlineswas now ready to establish its first non-stop service in Mexico.
Then, it had been said that China Southern would operate this flight twice a week (Monday and Thursday) with a Boeing 787-9 or an Airbus A350.
At 14,147 kilometers, the route would exceed the 12,878 that cover the connection between Canton (southeast) and New York (United States), and would be the seventh longest in the world, only below the one that connects Auckland (New Zealand) with Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
As revealed by Run, the route will fly directly to Mexico City from Shenzhen; However, the return trip will make small stopover of about 30 minutes in Tijuanain the northwest of the country.
The journey across the Pacific Ocean will have a total duration of more than 16 hours, according to the flight table shown by the regional news portal GD Today.
In 2022, state television CGTN collected statements from the Mexican Secretary of Tourism, Miguel Torruco, who assured that, starting next year, Aeroméxico -one of the companies which offered connections with China until the emergence of COVID-19 – would resume connections with the Asian country, although at the moment that route has not been finalized.
This information indicated that, Before the pandemic, China was the Asian country that sent the most tourists to Mexicowith a figure greater than 100 thousand and a per capita expenditure of about 2 thousand dollars on average.
