An expo-themed airplane painted with "colorful International Horticultural Exhibition" took off at the Beijing Capital International Airport on Sunday on a flight to London, which hosted the first expo in 1851.

A wide-body Airbus A350 aircraft, the airplane is painted with the emblem of the 2019 Beijing Expo and the two sides of the airplane are sprayed with a flying phoenix.

Air China, a global partner of the Beijing Expo 2019, has finished painting three airplanes with the expo design. Two previous airplanes had conducted single trips – the first one to China's Chongqing on April 23, and the second to Kunming on June 16.

The 2019 Beijing Expo will mark the second time for to China host such a global top-level horticulture expo, following the previous one in Kunming, Yunnan province, in 1999.

"Since April, we will go through several different levels of pressure tests and operations to examine the services of the expo parks and pavilions, in a bid to provide better service for global travelers," said Ye Dahua, deputy director of the coordination bureau.

Set to open on April 29, the 162-day exhibition is expected to receive more than 16 million people from 86 countries and 26 international organizations.