China's Urumqi Air Makes Inaugural Flight

WCARN.com | Aug. 29, 2014
Urumqi Air's Boeing 737-800 aircraft
 China's start-up Urumqi Air Co., Ltd. (UQ), made its maiden commercial flight Friday, with a Boeing 787-800 aircraft taking off from Urumqi Diwopu International Airport (URC) at 10:18 a.m.
According to VeryZhun, China's leading flight status service provider, the inaugural flight UQ2515 took off from URC at 10:18 a.m. and is expected to arrive at Yining Airport (YIN) at 11:20 a.m., with the return flight UQ2516 departing Yinning at 11:55 a.m. and arriving in Urumqi at 12:55 p.m. On the same day, flight UQ2511 is scheduled to take off from URC at 2:00 p.m. and arrive at Kashi Airport (KHG) at 3:40 p.m, with the return flight UQ2512 departing Yinning at 4:15 p.m. and landing in Urumqi at 5:55 p.m.

 Urumqi Air, which is the first local carrier in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in Northwestern China, received its operation license on Thursday. Aiming to play a major role in the New Silk Road, it will firstly focus on air routes in Xinjiang with the goal of extending to markets in Central and West Asia and Europe, according to Cen Jianjun, president of Urumqi Air.

In the initial stage, the start-up airline will fly four regional routes within Xinjiang and two domestic routes, with three Boeing 737-800s configured with all 186 economy class seats.
Urumqi Air took delivery of its very first aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, on Aug. 20. The other two 737-800s will join the fleet in September.
Registered in Urumqi Gaoxin District on May 15, 2014, Urumqi Air is a joint venture between Hainan Airlines, the controlling stakeholder with a 70% stake and Urumqi Urban Construction Investment, holding the rest 30%, with total investment capital of 3 billion yuan.