Brunei-China air network crucial to boost economies 

Paduka Magdalene Teo said Brunei’s air connectivity to major cities such as Beijing and Tianjin are crucial in boosting tourism between Brunei and China.
“Aside from people-to-people exchange between students, another fundamental area that ties people of both countries is the tourism sector,” she said during her visit to Nanjing Normal University recently.
She said there are limited flights between the two countries — one to Shanghai and the recently added route to Zhengzhou.
“From time to time we also have flights from Xiamen and now we are considering to add more new routes this year,” she said. 
“This is important as next year is also Asean-China tourism year,” she said. 
In tourism cooperation, China offers a huge potential for tourists from around the world, she said.
To further enhance tourism, the government of Brunei introduced in May a visa on arrival for a maximum stay of two weeks for Chinese tourists.
“We hope that there will be more flights looking at Tianjin and Beijing, which we used to have before but there was not enough traffic at that time, so I think we need to revive that route as well.”
Brunei is also looking at adding routes to some major cities in Henan and Hebei provinces, which are near to Zhengzhou and Beijing, respec?tively.
To be granted the freedom or right of a country’s airspace may be difficult especially considering the heavy air traffic in China. 
“But there are also code sharing flights that many airlines are doing now in easing the process of travelling to a country,” said Teo, suggesting that Brunei will take this approach if access to China’s airspace proves to be challenging.
Next year will also highlight the milestone of Brunei and China relations as Brunei will be the country of honour for the annual trade fair called China-Asean Expo.