URUMQI, March 20 (Xinhua) -- More air routes will be launched between Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and Asian and European destinations, to boost communication between the region and cities along the Belt and Road Initiative.

China Southern Airlines will open a new air route between the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to Astana in Kazakhstan, via Urumqi on April 1. Another flight will be launched on June 18 linking Guangzhou and Vienna in Austria, via Urumqi, which will be the first direct flight between Urumqi and a western European city, according to Zhong Bin, deputy head of the marketing department of the airline's Xinjiang branch.

Direct flights linking Urumqi with Moscow, St. Petersburg and Taipei will be resumed in the next three months, and the air route between Urumqi and Tbilisi in Georgia will increase from three times per week to four, from June.

The airline will have 101 routes linking to Xinjiang by then, it said.