Charter flight connects Alaska, China's Harbin

HARBIN - A direct charter route has connected China's Harbin City and Anchorage of Alaska in the United States, cutting flight time to seven hours between the two places.

The first North American Airlines flight by Boeing 767 left Anchorage and arrived at Harbin, provincial capital of Heilongjiang in northeast China, on Tuesday night, said Zhao Wenhua, deputy chief of the provincial commercial department.

The plane is scheduled to fly back to Anchorage on Wednesday night. And another round trip will be carried out on September 29 and 30.

It usually takes over 10 hours to arrive in the United States from China, and the new route between Harbin and Anchorage is the shortest.

The route is likely to boost tourism and trade between the two regions, as well as to make Heilongjiang Province a hub for cargo to and from the United States.

The governments of Heilongjiang and Alaska, which established friendship relations in 1985, are working to make the charter route into scheduled flights from next January, with two round-trips per month, said Zhao.