Lufthansa German Airlines, Europe's No 1 carrier, launched three new weekly non-stop services between Shanghai and Munich from today, making a total of seven weekly flights.

With the new flights, passengers are offered double daily services between the two countries.

"With the introduction of the new flights, we will strengthen our position as the No 1 European carrier offering the most flights among all European airlines between China and Europe," said Thierry Antinori, the airline's executive vice president for sales.

The German airline is already operating daily flights between Shanghai and Frankfurt, which is home to the largest airport in Germany as well as in Europe.

On the Shanghai-Frankfurt route, passenger traffic surged 25 percent last year, compared with a year earlier, according to Lufthansa officials.

Meanwhile, passengers in China departing for international destinations soared 22.3 percent year-on-year to 19.77 million last year, according to an annual report released by Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Also starting today, Lufthansa will introduce three more flights between Hong Kong and Munich, the third-largest city in Germany, to bring total frequencies to six weekly flights. Starting on July 1, Munich will also be connected to Beijing via three weekly flights.

"With the nine additional flights in 2003, China will be the top destination among Lufthansa's Asia-Pacific network," said Antinori.

Lufthansa is not the only airline seeking business opportunities in the Chinese aviation market.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said it will add two more services to the existing three weekly flights between Shanghai and Amsterdam from tomorrow.

"We believe China's air-travel market is promising," said Lin Xinjia, sales manager of KLM's local office.

In February, which used to be an off-peak season for airlines, passenger load factor on KLM's flights was as high as 89 percent.

UK-based Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd plans to deploy Airbus A340-600s -- touted as the world's longest commercial airplane -- to replace the A340-300 on its Shanghai-London sector.

Air France is operating two more flights weekly between Shanghai and Paris from today, increasing its flights on the sector to daily.

(Eastday.com March 31, 2003)