Businesspeople from Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province prepare to aboard a chartered business flight to Budapest, Hungary on Sept 21. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

A chartered flight carrying 136 businesspeople departed from Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province for Budapest, Hungary on Sept 21, local media reported.

This is the third round-trip business flight that has been launched by Ningbo this year, with the first and second being on July 10 and Aug 30.

The number of passengers aboard the chartered plane this time - most of them were from foreign trade companies in the city - was 100 more than the first of such flights.

Foreign trade companies inked intended deals worth $800 million yuan through the first flight, according to Han Jun, deputy director of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

Of the 136 passengers on the latest flight, about 80 will participate in industry-leading exhibitions, including the 2022 International Hardware Exhibition in Cologne, Germany and the Frankfurt Lighting Exhibition, also in Germany, while the rest will visit customers in countries like Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Wei Guowen, president of Zhejiang baolinda Toy Manufacturing Co Ltd, said that the company would visit 11 customers including seven new ones in countries including Poland, Denmark and the UK in the following 10 days.

As the pandemic has hampered the development of foreign-trade companies, Ningbo authorities have taken measures to help small, medium, and micro foreign trade enterprises by implementing measures such as launching chartered business flights, facilitating the entry and exit of foreign-related business personnel and introducing policies to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade.