The lion dancing performance at the Turkish Airlines ceremony launching a direct flight from Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province to Istanbul, Turkey on December 30, 2019 Photo: Courtesy of Turkish Airlines

After eight years, Turkish Airlines opened a direct flight from Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province to Istanbul.

Prior to this, the carrier opened Chinese routes mainly to the first-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. 

The Xi'an route was the first second-tier route opened by Turkish Airlines.

Starting its flights to China  in 1999 with Beijing as its first destination, Turkish Airlines opened air routes to Shanghai and Guangzhou in 2000 and 2011 respectively.

The carrier reinforced its strong position in Asia with the Xi'an flights. With this new addition, the global carrier's flight network encompassed the entirety of the historic Silk Road that started in Xi'an. 

The city is the carrier's 318th destination in the world. 

The flights to Xi'an will be operated three times a week with Airbus A330 aircraft.

In addition, the carrier hopes to increase the frequency of the Xi'an-Istanbul route to four flights per week by the summer of this year.

Media reported that the carrier has not only showed  interest in opening a new route to the newly opened Beijing Daxing International Airport, but said they hope to win more destinations to Chengdu, Xiamen and Wuhan. 

In 2018, the "Year of Turkey," about 400,000 Chinese tourists traveled to Turkey, up by 59 percent from the previous year, according to statistics provided by Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

In recent years, the number of newly opened intercontinental routes in China has maintained above 20, which is mostly at the second- and third-tier cities.

Previously, the airlines that opened intercontinental routes were mainly giants such as Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines, and their routes normally started from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other hubs. 

However, in recent years, Hainan Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, and Sichuan Airlines, as well as other foreign airlines, have opened a large number of direct flights from cities in Sichuan, Fujian, and Xi'an to other cities in Europe and the US.

Global Times