A solemn opening ceremony of Ural Airlines’ first Yekaterinburg-Beijing flight took place on July 5, 2009 in Koltsovo Airport’s airfield. The ceremony was attended by Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel, Ural Airlines’ General Director Sergey Skuratov, and the People’s Republic of China Consul for Yekaterinburg Se Tzinyn.

After the symbolic red ribbon had been cut, the first flight’s 115 passengers headed for the Chinese capital at 8:20 PM.

‘Ural Airlines and its partners expect to offer the customers plenty of connecting flights from Beijing to the south-eastern parts of China as well as to Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and other countries located in Southeast Asia. This means the new flight offers the Ural dwellers a link not only to China but to a number of other countries also,’ said Ural Airlines’ General Director Sergey Skuratov.

The scheduled Yekaterinburg-Beijing flight is to be operated weekly (and twice a week later on); the plane leaves Yekaterinburg at 8:20 PM on Sundays and arrives in Beijing at 4 AM on Mondays. Then the plane takes off in Beijing at 5.15 AM on Mondays and lands in Yekaterinburg at 9:25 AM. The departure and arrival times are local. The flight lasts six hours altogether.