Hainan arrives in Rome

Celebrations have been held at Rome Fiumicino Airport with Hainan Airlines of China marking its new route between the Italian capital and Xi’an with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

It is Hainan’s second non-stop European service from Xi’an and the airline is operating the twice-weekly, 8,015km route, which is not served by any other carrier, using the A330-200. The carrier’s first European non-stop is Xi’an – Paris, launched last September. It is also serving Rome from Chongqing with twice-weekly flights this winter.

Officials marking the new Xi’an – Rome arrival included Hainan Airlines’ vice-president Hou Wei and country manager Italy Xu Jie with Aeroporti di Roma EVP aviation Fausto Palombelli and head of airport marketing development Raffaele Pasquini.

The only other non-stop service to Europe from Hainan, which is China’s eighth busiest airport, handling almost 30m passengers in 2014, is China Eastern Airlines’ weekly flight to Moscow Sheremetyevo.

Hainan Airlines will be organising more celebrations soon as it continues its rapid expansion. It is introducing a nonstop three-times-weekly service between Beijing and Tel Aviv in April and new direct flights between Beijing and Manchester from next summer.  www.hainanairlines.com

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