Hainan Airlines, the country's first private carrier and the fourth largest, has inaugurated its Rome-Chongqing direct flight route on April 27, Monday, opening a new European route to China, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Hainan Airlines' Rome-Chongqing connection is scheduled to make two weekly flights from Chongqing on an Airbus A330 with 260 seats in business and economy.
This new route would connect Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport to Chongqing, China's largest city in southwest, dubbed as the gateway to China's central and western provinces.
According to the report, the opening of the new route has made Leonardo da Vinci airport the first European airport to be connected by a Chinese airline to Chongqing whose only connection, until now, was the Finnair flight from Helsinki.
The report said that the new route was the result of efforts of Aeroporti di Roma (ADR), the Rome Airport authorities, to increase connections with China and other Asian countries using new products, strategies and dedicated services.
A statement released by Hainan Airlines said that opening new routes would result in constant growth in the volume of passenger to and from China and Hong Kong via direct and stopover flights. Rome airport has served approximately 540,000 passengers in 2014, an increase of 10 percent in 2013 and 60 percent more in the last four years.
The report said that the increase in passenger traffic may be attributed to the rise in the number of direct flights, such as the Hainan Airlines' Rome-Chongqing connection.
The flights are part of ADR's program to welcome Chinese passengers. The other features include airport signage in Chinese, smartphone-friendly website (in Chinese) providing tourist and service information, and free bottled water in all cafes and restaurants.