China’s Sichuan Airlines will launch two-times weekly services from Pulkovo to Chengdu in the winter season 2017/2018 which starts on October 29, 2017, the company announced recently. For St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport, it will be the fourth China-bound route on the destination which increased 50% in the first half of 2017 in comparison to the corresponding period of 2016.
Currently, Pulkovo is connected to China via regular flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Urumchi and charters to a set of these and some other destinations. In the first six months of 2017, more than 70.000 passengers travelled between St. Petersburg and Chinese cities by air with a 50% boost to 2016.
Sichuan Airlines is to fly between St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo and Chengdu two times a week on Wednesdays and Sunday deploying its A330-300 carrying 301 passengers. No doubt the route will be successful as St. Petersburg hosts a few matches of the FIFA World Cup 2018 next summer, and even without the tournament taking place the Chinese tourist flow has been breaking records for the last two years. These record flows moved Pulkovo airport to be first in Russia to get certificated «China friendly».