Air Astana, the national flag carrier of Kazakhstan, is scheduled to launch a route between Guangzhou, Guangdong province, and Almaty on March 31.

Guangzhou will become the fourth direct flight destination opened by Air Astana in China after Beijing, Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Sanya in Hainan province.

The new route will be operated by the Airbus A321LR aircraft, with three round-trip flights per week.

"China has always been a strategically important market for Air Astana, with strong business and leisure traffic growth since the first service was launched between Almaty and Beijing more than 20 years ago," said Peter Foster, chief executive of Air Astana.

"The launch of the new service to Guangzhou represents a very significant step in expanding Air Astana's China network," he said.