Direct Chengdu-Bombay flight in May

China's flag carrier Air China will launch a direct route between southwest China's Chengdu and India's Bombay on May 2, the southwestern branch of the airline said Thursday. The new flight service will be the first direct flight from the Chinese mainland to Bombay, the largest harbor in India, said a spokesman for the the branch. The Chengdu-Bombay route's four flights every week will be serviced by Airbus A319 aircraft each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The flight (CA429) will depart from Chengdu at 9:30 p.m. Beijing time and arrive in Bombay at 0:20 a.m. local time. And the Bombay-Chengdu route will be conducted each Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Monday, with the flight (CA430) departing Bombay at 1:40 a.m. local time and arriving at Chengdu at 8:50 a.m Beijing time. The new route will be Air China's second flight service from Chengdu to India after it started operating the Chengdu-Bangalore route in 2009. Statistics show that, over 50 percent of those on board the Chengdu-Bangalore flight are transit passengers, on the journey between southern India and major Chinese cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai.