Air China Restores North Korea Flights After Six-Year Hiatus

(MENAFN) Air China, the country's flagship national carrier, restored direct air links with North Korea on Monday, ending a six-year suspension that had left the two neighboring capitals without commercial passenger flights since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Beijing-departing Air China aircraft touched down in Pyongyang Monday morning, formally marking the relaunch of scheduled passenger operations between the two capitals, a state news agency reported.

Chinese Ambassador to North Korea, Wang Yajun, joined fellow diplomats on the tarmac at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang to personally welcome passengers disembarking from the inaugural resumed flight.

Cross-border travel between the two nations ground to a near-total halt in 2020, when Pyongyang imposed sweeping border closures as part of its stringent response to the global COVID-19 outbreak. The resumption of air services follows the earlier restoration of daily passenger train operations between Beijing and Pyongyang this month, signaling a broader thaw in bilateral travel ties.

North Korea had already moved to rebuild transport connections on other fronts — direct flights and rail services with Russia were restored last year, while state-owned carrier Air Koryo had separately relaunched flights between Beijing and Pyongyang back in 2023.

Monday's development marks yet another step in Pyongyang's gradual, measured re-engagement with the outside world following years of near-total self-imposed isolation.

MENAFN30032026000045017169ID1110917068