HNA Air Catering Holding Co Ltd and LSG Sky Chefs have signed a joint-venture contract to establish a new catering facility in Urumqi. The shares in the new Xinjiang HNA LSG Sky Chefs Co Ltd are 51% owned by HNA Air Catering Holding Co Ltd and 49% by LSG Asia GmbH.

LSG Sky Chefs is the world's leading provider of integrated in-flight solutions, including catering, procurement, equipment management and Total In-flight Service Management. LSG Sky Chefs caters 270 airlines from more than 200 customer service centers in 48 countries.

The new facility will be 2.500 m2 in size and will have the capacity to produce 5,000 to 6,000 airline meals a day. The targeted start-up date is October 2006.

Urumqi is a regional hub and a major Chinese passageway to link up with Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It is the bridgehead of west China and, due to its richness in natural resources, a magnet for investments in heavy industry. Traffic at the airport has grown quickly to around four million passengers in 2004 and is expected to maintain double-digit growth for years to come.