Monday, 8th December 2014
China national passenger airline, Air China is scheduled to start direct service between Chengdu, the capital city of southwest China’s Sichuan province, and the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo in early February, the airline said in a statement.
The new service is the airline’s fourth international service from Chengdu to South Asia following Kathmandu, Mumbai and Bangalore.
The Chengdu-Colombo service will operate four weekly flights using A330 aircraft. The four flights will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays with one-way trip taking five-and-a-half hours.
This is the first service from Chengdu to a Sri Lankan city, marking an important step towards the construction of the flag carrier’s Chengdu hub.
The new service will strengthen Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)’s capacity on its South Asian routes, and accelerate the pace of building Chengdu into an international aviation hub, the airline said.
Passenger flow between southwest China and Sri Lanka has grown quickly in recent years amid increasing trade and economic activity and tourism as more Chinese tourists are visiting the island.
Number of Chinese tourists arriving in the island rose by an impressive 137.6% to reach 117,766 in the first 11 months of this year.
Before the Chengdu announcement, SriLankan Airlines already operated flights to Colombo from four Chinese mainland cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing.
