Tourists interested in travelling to one of the most hermetic and secretive places on earth, namely North Korea, will now have more choice when planning their travel. Air China has announced that it will be launching direct, regularly scheduled flights from Beijing to Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) and as such, will be the only foreign airline to land at the city's Sunan International Airport. Previously, the only way to travel to Pyongyang was to take a flight operated by DPRK's state-owned carrier, Air Koryo. Yet many foreigners had deep reservations about flying with Air Koryo, which was recently banned from landing at airports in the European Union, after having been blacklisted for its allegedly lax safety protocol and old, outdated airplanes.

Air China will now launch three round-trip flights each week between Beijing and Pyongyang. Although it is still fairly difficult for tourists to be granted visas in order to visit the DPRK, Air China is banking on an increase in the number of Chinese businesspeople who may fly to Pyongyang on official trips, as well as some leisurely travellers from the world's most populous country. Air China, however, is not the first foreign carrier to operate regular flights to the DPRK. China Southern Airlines used to fly there as well, until 2006 when the route was cancelled due the North Korea's controversial nuclear tests.

In addition to Air China, Air Koryo does continue to offer regular flights from Beijing to Pyongyang. The carrier operates a fleet of 21 Soviet-built planes, including the Tupolev Tu-134 and Tu-154, as well as the Ilyushin 62 and the Antonov An-24. Accurate information on Air Koryo's domestic network of destinations in difficult to come by, but the carrier does operate at least one regularly scheduled internal route.