Royal Jordanian (RJ)  will inaugurate a new regular route from Amman to the Chinese city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton, starting March 21, with three weekly flights.

Guangzhou will be RJ’s second Chinese destination and the fifth in the Far East. The others are: Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.

Operating flights to Guangzhou, China's third largest city and the largest in the south-central region of the country, is bound to serve the active trade and commerce traffic between Jordan and China.

In 2014, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was China's second busiest and the world's 16th busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic; it handled over 55 million passengers that year.

RJ president and CEO Captain Suleiman Obeidat said that adding Guangzhou to the route network is in line with the strategy that RJ is now implementing; one of the pillars of this strategy is to review the route network and open new, profitable markets.

Captain Obeidat said that Guangzhou, the 56th destination on the RJ network, will be an added value to the network, meeting the demand of the traders and businessmen of the two countries, as well as to tradesmen from different neighbouring countries, such as Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Palestine, especially since Guangzhou serves as a significant national transportation hub and trading port.

He also said that Guangzhou has a great potential for the tourism market, enabling both Chinese and Jordanian tourists to visit. Guangzhou is well known for its ancient civilization and exquisite nature, and Jordan boasts distinguished archaeological sites that exert a great attraction on tourists.

RJ will run flights to Guangzhou via Bangkok on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, using its wide-body Boeing 787 or Airbus 330 aircraft. The planes take off from Queen Alia International Airport, Amman, at 2:30 am and reach Guangzhou at 20:15; they depart Guangzhou at 22:05 and land in Amman at 05:25 am the following day, according to the winter flight schedule, with a short stop in Bangkok both ways.

As per the summer flight schedule, which starts end of March, the planes take off from Queen Alia International Airport, Amman, at 3:35 am and reach Guangzhou at 20:45; they depart Guangzhou at 22:05 and land in Amman at 6:00 am the following day. – TradeArabia News Service