Air China to commence Chengdu – Colombo service

Air China will commence nonstop service from Chengdu to Colombo , the capital of Sri Lanka , on February 10, 2015.

Air China will operate its Chengdu – Colombo service CA425/6 with Airbus 330 aircraft. The four flights a week will be offered on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

The outbound flight departs from Chengdu at 18:30 Beijing time and arrives in Colombo at 21:50 local time. The inbound flight departs from Colombo at 23:10 local time and arrives in Chengdu at 06:40 of the second day.

The new nonstop route will be Air China’s fourth one to Southeast Asia after the launch of the routes to Kathmandu , Mumbai and Bangalore by the carrier. It will spare passengers who travel between southwest China and Sri Lanka the trouble of having to make flight connections in cities of Beijing , Shanghai , Hong Kong , Bangkok and Singapore , thusly cutting the travel time from 10 hours to 5.5 hours.

Air China will introduce a number of services on the route. First Class/Business Class passengers who fly to Colombo from Chengdu are entitled to free chauffeured transfer between the airport and downtown in Chengdu ; passengers with flight connections in Chengdu within 24 hours are entitled to free hotel stay and free transfer between the hotel and the airport; First Class/Business Class passengers on international flight segment with flight connections in Chengdu are entitled to free stay in a five-star hotel.

Chengdu – Colombo route is the first of the kind linking the two cities and represents one of the important moves of Air China to make Chengdu its regional hub of operations. It will solidify the position of Chengdu as a center of traffic in South Asia , and is part of Air China’s endeavor to make Chengdu an international hub of commercial aviation.