BEIJING: As part of its effort to build its hub in China's southwestern city of Chengdu, Air China will open a Shanghai-Chengdu-Mumbai route on May 2, 2012.

With the introduction of the new service, Mumbai will be the 10th city accessible by Air China's flights from Chengdu; the other cities include Tokyo, Nagoya, Seoul, Singapore, Bangalore, Kathmandu, Karachi, Taipei China and Hong Kong China. The four weekly flights, CA429/430, will be offered with A319 by Air China's southwestern offshoot.

Mumbai is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Known as India's "west gateway", it is the country's largest port and important hub of transportation. As an economic center and industrial base, Mumbai boasts Asia's longest "Gold Market Street". It's the birthplace of India's textile industry and one of the world's most important textile products exporters.

About Air China

Air China is China's only national flag carrier and a Star Alliance member. Using a fleet of 306 Airbus and Boeing aircraft, we run 289 routes serving 30 countries and regions. Thanks to our admission to the Star Alliance, our route network, with Beijing as its hub, coupled with the even stronger network of the Star Alliance, is able to place 1,160 destinations in 181 countries within our reach.

PhoenixMiles is our frequent flyer program that allows our loyal customers to accrue mileage and request awards in our worldwide system. Air China's frequent flyer program has a membership of 17 million.

In 2011, Air China was featured in the Top 500 World Brands rankings for the fifth consecutive year. For more information, please visit our website www.airchina.com.

SOURCE Air China