Cathay Pacific on Monday relaunched direct passenger flights between Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, with Financial Secretary Paul Chan taking the first flight servicing the two cities since the route was suspended in 2017.

The flag carrier will operate three flights per week, as authorities push for more cooperation with Middle East countries.

Chan who was aboard flight CX647 is leading a delegation of over 100 representatives from the financial and innovation and technology sectors to Riyadh.

“This symbolises a more frequent and direct people-to-people flow and also trade and cargo flow between the two regions. Cathay Pacific will be increasing its services to this region,” he said before boarding.

“[We are] opening up new markets, attracting new sources of capital, new sources of investment. This is an important move.”

Cathay’s chief customer and commercial officer, Lavinia Lau, said the carrier’s aim was to reach 100 worldwide destinations by next year.

She said Cathay received a good response from travellers on the resumption of direct flights to Riyadh.

“The booking is pretty promising, at least for the first few flights… but going forward, we are also seeing a variety of travellers on our flights,” Lau said.

“Some of them originating from Hong Kong, a lot actually coming back from the other side, Saudi Arabia, to Hong Kong to visit, or going via Hong Kong to places like Japan to visit. We also see good traffic flows from Southeast Asia, via Hong Kong to Riyadh.”

Another passenger on the flight to Riyadh was Nelson. The startup worker said flying direct was much more convenient.

“Last time, I think we had to change from Qatar, so this is really convenient for us. It’s a direct flight. The difference is, first of all, time, and also it’s more convenient for business,” he told RTHK.