China's Eastern Airlines will begin direct flights from Shanghai to New York on Friday.

 

The maiden flight, MU587, will take off at 6:30 p.m. from Pudong Airport in Shanghai and land at 7:45 p.m. local time in New York.

 

The airline will operate four direct flights from Shanghai to New York weekly and flights will be served by an Airbus 340-600 with a capacity of 400 passengers.

 

According to the ticket sales, 90 percent of the tickets for the first flight have been bought.

 

The new route will remove the need to travel via the cities of Tokyo, Seoul or Beijing flights.

 

Shanghai is the second Chinese city after Beijing to offer direct flights to New York.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2006)