Harbin Taiping International Airport, as one of the most important aviation hubs in northeast China, experienced a spike in numbers of handling passengers to Russia in 2018.

Statistics released by Heilongjiang Airport Group reveal that the airport handled 163,000 passengers traveling between Harbin and Russia, representing a year-on-year increase of 14.3 percent.

Steady increase in Harbin-Russia passenger traffic volume marks a further expansion of the Sino-Russian aviation market, and also highlights strong demands for business and tourism between China and Russia, said anairport staff member.

Currently, Harbin Taiping International Airport has flight connections to 96 domestic cities and 23 overseas cities via 184 different flight services, covering all the capital cities of China’s provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, as well as cities in Russia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore.

Among which, there are 11 flight routes connecting Harbin with nine cities in Russia, including Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk.

In the future, Harbin airport will take advantage of its geographic advantages by developing more short and medium-distance direct flights to Russia, Japan and South Korea, as well as North America region, in a bid to becoming the largest aviation hub in northeast Asia.