Air Canada to increase direct flights to China to promote economy, trade

Air Canada will increase direct flights between China and Canada starting from December to help bolster economy and trade between the two countries and promote further recovery of China-Canada air transportation, CAAC news reported on Wednesday. The airline will increase the frequency of its round trip Vancouver to Shanghai route to seven flights per week from four from Dec. 7 and resume the operation of seven weekly Vancouver to Beijing direct flights from Jan, 15, 2025. Despite the continued frictions over trade, Canada this year had agreed to stabilise bilateral ties with China, committing to "pragmatic" engagement with the world's second-largest economy. Beijing has also agreed to normalise relations with Ottawa, after Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly's July visit to China, the first by a Canadian foreign minister in seven years. The increase in direct flights will "help meet the needs of personnel exchanges and economic and trade between the two sides, and promote the further recovery of the air transport market between China and Canada," said CAAC News, the official newspaper under China's aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Bilateral relations, established in 1970, turned icy in 2018 after Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada and China subsequently arrested two Canadians in China. All three were later released, but Ottawa's allegations of Chinese interference in Canada have kept relations strained.<br/>