Published : 27/06/2025
On June 27, 2010, with the landing of a China Southern Airlines Airbus A330-200 aircraft at Xinjiang Kashi International Airport, the trial flight from Guangzhou to Kashi was successful.
This was the longest domestic route in China at that time, with an airborne flight distance of nearly 5,000 kilometres, and it was also the longest flight time for a domestic flight in China at that time.
The new Guangzhou to Kashi route was specifically introduced by China Southern Airlines in response to the Xinjiang market. After the opening of the new route, the airborne flight time from Guangzhou to Kashi became 6 hours and 30 minutes.
According to the configuration at that time, there was a round-trip flight daily on the Guangzhou-Urumqi-Kashi route, totalling seven round-trip flights per week.
Hu Wei (胡偉), then Vice Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, said that the opening of this route was an important measure of Guangdong's assistance to Xinjiang and a significant event in the development of Xinjiang's civil aviation industry.
China Southern Airlines has built a convenient aerial bridge between Kashi, the westernmost part of China's Xinjiang region, and Guangzhou, the southernmost part of the mainland.
Kashi is the western gate of China, bordering five countries and having six national first-class ports open to the outside world, with significant geographical advantages.
In May 2010, the Central Xinjiang Work Conference officially approved the establishment of an economic special zone in Kashi, which is of strategic importance for the leapfrog development of the Kashi region and even Xinjiang's economy.
The direct flight opened by China Southern Airlines from Guangzhou to Kashi provides more convenient conditions for passenger and cargo transportation, building an aerial bridge for economic and trade, tourism, and cultural exchanges between Guangdong and Kashi.
It also provides strong support for Guangdong's aid work in Xinjiang, promoting Xinjiang's economic development.