On March 30, China's civil aviation sector officially transitioned to the summer-autumn flight schedule. Sichuan's aviation sector enters a new round of route network optimization. Chengdu, a key aviation hub in southwest China, has seen its domestic and international route networks further strengthened. Multiple airlines have added, resumed or increased their routes.
Regarding international routes, Sichuan Airlines has introduced two new direct services: from Chengdu Tianfu International Airport (TFU) to Madrid and TFU to Penang. The flight frequency from TFU to Vancouver has been enhanced to two times weekly, while the service from TFU to Rome has been upgraded to five times weekly. Sichuan Airlines provides nearly 7,000 weekly international transfer options via TFU, with layovers ranging from two to ten hours, connecting 18 major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Sichuan Airlines' new routes, such as TFU-Istanbul-Athens and TFU-Bali services, are scheduled to be progressively introduced.
Air China has reinstated its Chengdu-Paris route and, following the resumption of its Chengdu-Tokyo service, plans to upgrade the latter to daily operations, effective from July. Spring Airlines has launched a same-day direct route from Chengdu via Shanghai and Ningbo to Osaka and Jeju Island. Asiana Airlines will resume its Chengdu-Seoul round-trip service, operating one daily flight. Air Macau plans to increase flight frequency on its TFU-Macao route to ten flights weekly.
Regarding domestic routes, Chengdu Airlines will establish a new overnight operational base in Urumqi, Xinjiang, developing a hub-and-spoke network with Urumqi as the primary hub and Kashgar, Yining and Turpan as secondary nodes. This includes 41 routes within Xinjiang, including those from Urumqi to Kanas and from Kashgar to Tashkurgan. Additionally, 15 interregional routes connecting Xinjiang with other places, such as Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)-Urumqi-Kashgar, will be actively promoted to boost passenger traffic. The airline also plans to expand its capacity in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia.
Sichuan Airlines is planning to launch 15 new routes, including services from TFU to Xiamen and from Hangzhou to Chongqing to Nyingchi, and to resume 19 routes, such as those from TFU to Wuyishan and TFU to Yining. The average daily flight frequencies from CTU and TFU airports to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have been raised to ten, seven and six flights per day, respectively. The number of key public and business routes from CTU that operate an average of four daily flights or more has been increased to six city pairs, namely, services between CTU and Beijing, Guangzhou, Lhasa, Shenzhen, Nanjing and Wuxi. Air China has expanded its services at CTU by introducing additional express routes from Chengdu to Shenzhen and Hangzhou, along with high-quality trunk routes to Shanghai, Fuzhou and Changsha. At Tianfu Airport, its investment continues to grow, focusing on seven key aviation hubs: Tianjin, Changchun, Shanghai (Pudong), Jinan, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Lhasa. Additionally, Air China has introduced new routes from TFU to Xiamen and Urumqi and has reinstated the service on the TFU-Wuyishan route.
China Southern Airlines has enhanced the frequency of its Chengdu-Dalian route, now operating two flights daily, and has initiated a new direct route from Chengdu to Korla. The airline has also increased the frequency of its Chengdu-Wuhan route to four flights per day and its Chengdu-Jieyang route to two flights per day. China Eastern Airlines plans to launch new routes covering some of the long-haul distances into Xinjiang, such as the TFU to Yining route. Spring Airlines is set to launch a new flight route that will link Chengdu with Jieyang Chaoshan International Airport.
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