Lijiang aircraft tours for only 980 yuan

The Yunnan Ruifeng Jet Co announced that they have received an operation certificate and will launch aircraft tours of Lijiang on Jan 30, 2013.

On Jan 26, a Cessna 208B Caravan will fly from Changshui Airport to Lijiang Sanyi Airport to prepare for the first flight departing on Jan 30. The first flight route covers the Old Town of Lijiang and the Yulong Snow Mountains.

In the initial phase there will be four or five flights every day. The flights will last 30 minutes and tickets will cost 980 yuan ($157.49). Other flight routes covering the first bend of the Yangtze River and Laojun Mountain are expected to open later.

The price of a Cessna 208B Caravan is 20 million yuan ($3.21 million). It can take at most 12 tourists at one time. Tourists can open the windows to take photographs in the sky since the airplane will fly at a height of only 700 – 900 meters, said Chen Jiang, president of Ruifeng Jet.

Tourists can buy tickets from travel agencies entrusted by Ruifeng Jet, or simply buy on their official website.

Ruifeng Jet plans to establish bases for taking-off and landing in the Hi-Tech Area, Lijiang Baisha Airport and Xishuangbanna Mohan. The bases will have hangars, runways and terminals, serving as microcosms of ordinary airports.

Edited by Li Yang and Michael Thai