China's Long March-7A carrier rocket fails in maiden flight

10:51, March 17, 2020

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  China's Long March-7A carrier rocket fails in maiden flight

  WENCHANG, Hainan, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The first of Chinas new medium-sized carrier rocket Long March-7A suffered a failure Monday.File photo: CGTNThe rocket blasted off at 9:34 p.m. Beijing Time from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of south Chinas Hainan Province, but a malfunction occurred later.Chinese space engineers will investigate the cause of the failure.

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  Charter flight carrying Chinese medical experts, supplies heads for Italy

  SHANGHAI, March 18 -- A charter flight carrying 12 Chinese medical experts and over 17 tonnes of supplies headed for Milan of Italy on Wednesday to aid the country's fight against the coronavirus outbreak.Operated by China Eastern Airlines, the flight took off at about 11:26 a. from the Shanghai Pu

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  One-way business charter flights from overseas surge in March

  A staff member reminds foreigners to fill in an arrival card at Qingdao Liuting International Airport in Qingdao, east Chinas Shandong Province, March 5, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)One-way business charter flights from overseas back to China surged in March as the coronavirus outbreak has eased in China while it keeps escalating abroad. A passenger even spent over 1 million yuan ($142,700) to rent a private jet back to China."We only have one daughter, and its all for safety," said a person surnamed Fang who spent 1.2 million yuan to rent a private jet to send his daughter back to Guangzhou, Guangdong Province from London.Fang told the Global Times that virus prevention in London was not satisfying and British people dont have enough protective awareness.Fang rented a business jet, Gulfstream G550, through iFlyPlus, a leading private jet platform in China, and brought his daughter back to China last week."Our registered customers from overseas surged 11-19 percent from January to March," read a statement sent to the Global Times by iFlyPlus.Consultations from Chinese overseas have been escalating since March, including entrepreneurs, immigrants and Chinese students, and they are mainly from Italy, Spain and the UK, the statement said.During the first 10 days in March, the number of booked flights to China from overseas at iFlyPlus surged 227 percent year-on-year, the statement said.Moreover, the percentage of one-way flights surpassed round-trip flights, which was unusual. For new orders across January to February, 12 percent were from firms who tried to bring staff back to work, and 71 percent were families in order to travel more safely with kids and the senior people, iFlyPlus introduced.Deer Jet Beijing Co, a famous business aviation company, has helped its overseas partner to roll out a tailored service, to offer charter flights to customers who couldnt afford renting jets independently but had a strong demand to tr...