Helicopter service set to take off

Astro Air planning commuter flights to major destinations

A helicopter commuter service between Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, three major business cities in Guangdong province, will make its maiden flight on Thursday, the first of its kind on the Chinese mainland.

It will take only half an hour to make a trip between two of the cities, one-fifth of the travel time by other means of transportation, according to Zhu Zilin, chief of the helicopter service team at Astro Air Co Ltd, a privately owned general aviation company based in Shenzhen.