Chinese airline resumes direct Wuhan-Moscow flights

The direct flight from Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, to Russia's Moscow resumed.

China Southern Airlines flight CZ8003 departed from Wuhan at around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday local time with 271 passengers on board. The route is scheduled to operate by Airbus A350-900 aircraft twice weekly on Sundays and Tuesdays from Wuhan to Moscow.

The outbound flight from Wuhan takes off at 3:10 p.m. Beijing time and arrives in Moscow at 7:15 p.m. local time. The return flight departs from Moscow at 9:15 p.m. local time and lands in Wuhan at 10:30 a.m. Beijing time the next day.

The route was first launched in July 2014; however, it was suspended later due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move came after China announced a visa-free policy for Russian ordinary passport holders from September 15 this year to September 14, 2026.