The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will start scheduling passenger flights for Guangzhou and Xian as the Chinese authorities have granted the national flag carrier operating licence to both the cities.

Earlier, the PIA was operating flights only for Beijing, but now, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has granted the operating license to two more cities, PIA Country Manager Qadir Bux Sangi said on Sunday.

As per current standard operating procedure of CAAC, international carriers can operate one weekly flight for China, Sangi said.

Responding to a question, the PIA country manager said, the national flag carrier has also applied for grant of operating licence for Chengdu Station which is under approval process and hopefully, we will get its approval next month.

Talking about cargo flights, he said that PIA has got approval from the Chinese authorities to operate chartered cargo flights for Kunming and Shenzhen while approval for Kashgar (Xinjiang) is under process.

He expressed confidence that the chartered cargo flights to different Chinese cities would help further enhance trade and economic activities between Islamabad and Beijing.