By Xinyi Li, EDITOR

With the opening of the non-stop flight to Paris, 6 non-stop flights for passenger transportation to Europe have been opened. In addition, there routes to Europe are from Chongqing to London, Rome, Helsinki, and Moscow. Chongqing will establish an airline network covering major European aviation hubs on occasion. It is of great significance for Chongqing building itself into an international aviation hub.

Chongqing makes efforts to develop international routes from last 2 years, and the number of routes will reach to 100 by 2020

In the last 2 years, Chongqing has successively opened multiple strategic air routes, including non-stop flights to Auckland, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, and Melbourne, as well as connecting flights to Toronto and Chicago via Beijing. Moreover, the number of newly opened international routes has reached 18, with about 10 new international routes per year. It lays the foundation to accelerate the construction of the international aviation hub.

International Flight Routes in Chongqing

The year 2017 saw the most newly opened intercontinental routes, covering New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, and Melbourne. The route of Chongqing to Los Angeles is the first non-stop flights to North America. In the meantime, the route of Chongqing to Moscow is the first and Eastern Europe. The Chongqing-New York route is the first direct flight to New York in Midwest China.

As of October 2018, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport opened 295 routes to 184 destinations in total. Meanwhile, Chongqing has 77 international routes (70 non-stop flights, accounting for 90%). There are 63 passenger routes and 14 cargo routes, covering 57 cities in 24 countries on five continents. The “Belt and Road” airlines have totaled 50 to 37 cities and 15 countries, comprising 44 passenger routes and six cargo routes.

In December this year, Chongqing will also open routes to Seattle and Boston via Shanghai and other routes. Chongqing forms a “2 + 4” airline network pattern from Chongqing to North America. It basically contains 2 non-stop flights and 4 connecting flights. With 18 flights every week, there are daily flights to the east and west coasts of North America. Besides, Chongqing will continue to increase the routes to Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other neighboring regions. By the end of this year, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport will have more than 80 international routes, mainly completing the strategic layout of airlines to Europe, America, and Australia.

The Promotion of International Flight Routes in Chongqing in the Future

Chongqing will follow the idea and objective of developing Chongqing’s international routes, based on the strategic airline layout. Therefore, the city will take its regional advantages to focus on the westward and southward expansion of airlines. It will then construct the three major transfer channels involving Europe-Chongqing-Southeast Asia (Australia and New Zealand), Northeast Asia-Chongqing-Africa (South Asia) and South Asia (Southeast Asia)-Chongqing-North America, aiming to develop into the core international aviation hub for the “Belt and Road”.

To improve international routes in Chongqing, several steps are necessary. The first is to fill gaps. The city can increase routes to internationally renowned cities and major international aviation hubs in Europe and North America. At the same time, it can open scheduled flights to Africa and South Asia.

The second is to increase the density. Chongqing can add waypoints and flights to Southeast Asia and other key cities of “Belt and Road” Initiative, as well as Japan and South Korea. On the other hand, the city can consolidate a number of strategic airlines to Europe, America, and Australia.

The third is to boost the development of the hub. Efforts will be made to build high-quality international trunk routes, strengthen the capacity building of transfer and distribution hubs, increase the number of international routes to 100 by 2020, and speed up the development of being an international aviation hub.