Chongqing-based China West Air announced on Friday that it has officially laucned the airline's inaugural international flight from Chongqing to Singapore Thursday night.
With the launch of this flight, the Chongqing-based airline will commence operation of a thrice-weekly service between Singapore and the western Chinese city of Chongqing on an Airbus A320-200, with a capacity of 180 seats.
The arrival of West Air strengthens Singapore's connectivity to western China, opening up more opportunities for both trade and leisure travel between the two destinations, said Zhu Tao, President of West Air.
This new service, which represents the Chinese carrier's first international service, comes on the back of a bilateral pledge to grow air connectivity between Singapore and Chongqing, inked recently through a memorandum.
Changi Airport Group (CAG), Chongqing Airport Group, SilkAir, Air China Limited Chongqing Branch, China West Air, and Chongqing Airlines entered into a six-party Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation in early January to enhance air connectivity between western China and Singapore.
Under this memorandum, both airports will work closely with the airline partners to mount new flights and increase flight frequencies, not just between Singapore and Chongqing, but also to boost transfer traffic via both hubs.
Both airports will support the airlines to develop connectivity from cities in Western China via Chongqing to Singapore, cultivating the aviation market between Singapore and relevant cities under China's Belt and Road initiative.
"For Changi Airport, Western China represents exciting untapped growth opportunities. Following the signing of the memorandum of strategic cooperation, we are delighted to welcome the initial fruit of our collaboration through the commencement of West Air's operation to Changi Airport...Going forward, we will continue to work with our partners under this framework to develop air connectivity and promote both trade and tourism flow between the two cities and our respective air hubs," said Lim Ching Kiat, CAG's Senior Vice-President for Market Development.
China is one of the key markets for Changi Airport. In 2015, 4.9 million passenger movements were from China, which contributes to about 9 percent to Changi's total passenger traffic. With West Air's entrance, there are 12 airlines at Changi Airport operating direct services to China, offering some 560 weekly flights between the two countries.
