With some 300 passengers, a Boeing 777 of China Southern Airlines made its maiden flight on the Guangzhou-Paris non-stop route on Monday.

The new direct Guangzhou-Paris service, inaugurated under a code share with Air France, is available four times a week - Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

For the time being, the Boeing 777 departs from Guangzhou at 14:30 and arrives in Paris at 21:20 the same day.

And flights back to Guangzhou leave at 22:50 from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and arrive in Guangzhou at 16:20 the next day.

The Guangzhou-Paris direct flight service was kicked off in early January and Air France has been responsible for the operation of the service with its Airbus 340s.

With China Southern's participation, passengers will have a choice of 11 flights a week between Guangzhou and Paris.

"The social, cultural and economical exchanges between South China, particularly Guangdong Province, and France have become increasingly frequent, the direct flight service will not only make the exchanges more convenient but also better position China Southern to tap the bonanza due to the ever intensifying market demand," Yan Zhiqing, president of China Southern Airlines Co Ltd, told China Daily.

The Sino-French Cultural Year activities, initiated last October and set to last through July 2005, will result in busy cultural exchanges, he said that means the necessity of more direct flights as well as business opportunities for China Southern.

Guangdong, particularly the Pearl River Delta region, is one of the most affluent regions in China.

The region has become a hot spot for European investors, he added.

French investors have set up some 180 enterprises in Guangzhou, statistics from Guangzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation Department indicate.

Trade fairs, industrial exhibitions and international conferences attract numerous people from Europe.

The Chinese Export Commodities Fair alone attracts more than 100,000 business people from around the world annually.

And local residents' interest to go touring Europe and the interest of the European tourists to explore the misty, historical spots and scenic attractions of the province and China as a whole lead to another business potential for the flight.

According to Dong Tian, an official with the Guangdong Provincial Tourism Administration, local people made 78.38 million trips abroad last year for various reasons, and trips to Europe made up 10 per cent of the total.

Meanwhile, some 700,000 European guests arrived in Guangdong in the first four months of this year, up 25 per cent from a year ago.

Total European tourists to Guangdong numbered 1.70 million in 2003, a fall of 8 per cent from 2002, due to the outbreak of the fatal epidemic of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

The number of European tourists to Guangdong will definitely grow when the social, economic and cultural exchanges become more frequent and the flight service becomes more convenient, she said.

In a recent interview, Jean-Louis Pinson, executive vice-president for Asia Pacific, Air France, said almost 80 per cent of the seats on the direct flights are taken up.

(China Daily June 29, 2004)