CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- On June 24, Flight CZ553 of Chongqing Airlines which is a subsidiary of China Southern Airlines, took off smoothly with 149 passengers from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, marking the official opening of Chongqing ⇌ Colombo ⇌ Male air route.

It is reported that this air route is the first international route of the fifth freedom traffic right in Chongqing market. The fifth freedom traffic right is the right granted to a national or regional airline to stop over and load passengers and cargo in a third country in route while operating an international route.

Chongqing ⇌ Colombo ⇌ Male air route is implemented on Monday, Wednesday and Friday by A320neo aircraft and the flight number is CZ553. On every Monday and Friday, it departs from Chongqing at 12:10, arrives in Colombo at 15:30, departs from Colombo at 16:30 and arrives in Male at 17:40. On every Wednesday, it departs from Chongqing at 15:45, arrives in Colombo at 19:00, departs from Colombo at 20:10 and arrives in Male at 21:25. The return flight number is CZ554. It departs from Male at 18:50, arrives in Colombo at 21:00, departs from Colombo at 22:00, and arrives in Chongqing at 05:55 (+1) on every Monday and Friday, and departs from Male at 22:55, arrives in Colombo at 01:10 (+1), and departs from Colombo at 02:20 (+1), and arrives in Chongqing at 10:30 (+1) on every Wednesday (all the above times are local times. Please refer to the official website for actual details.).

The opening of this air route makes up for the vacancy of the air route network among Chongqing, Maldives and Sri Lanka, which is conducive to promoting economic and trade exchanges, cultural exchanges and tourism industry development, promoting high-quality joint construction of the “Belt and Road” in a deeper and more solid manner, and serving Chongqing to build an inland opening-up comprehensive hub so that more people can enjoy the pleasant flight.

According to Xu Linqing, General Manager of Chongqing Airlines Co., Ltd., Chongqing Airlines will resume the direct flight to Phuket on July 1, as well as Chongqing ⇌ Kashgar, Chongqing ⇌ Yining, Chongqing ⇌ Beihai, and provide more flights for Chongqing ⇌ Tianjin and Chongqing ⇌ Urumqi routes to further meet the needs of travelers to popular tourist destinations during the summer rush.

This year is the 17th anniversary of the founding of Chongqing Airlines. Over the past 17 years, Chongqing Airlines has accumulated more than 860,000 hours of safe flights, carried more than 47 million passengers, maintained 203 consecutive months of flight, air defense and ground safety, and opened a total of 92 routes from Chongqing to and from all parts of the country, and 6 international routes, and has formed a route network layout covering the key cities of the country and radiating to Southeast Asia. (Translated by Liu Hongyan, Fathom Language Limited)