An Airbus A-320 plane of SilkAirtook off Wednesday from southwest China's Chongqing Municipality heading for Singapore, kicking off a new air route linking the world's most populous country directly with the city-state.

The launch of the new air route makes Chongqing, the biggest city in west China, the sixth Chinese city with a direct flight to Singapore under the Singaporean airline.

The plane flies every Wednesday and Saturday from China to Singapore.

Flight M1977 takes off from the Jiangbei International Airport in Chongqing at 0:20 a.m. (Beijing time) and arrives at Changi Airport of Singapore at 5:05 a.m. (local time).

The new commercial air service from Singapore to Chongqing will be carried out by flight M1978 which takes off at 18:55 p.m. (local time) every Tuesday and Friday and arrives in Chongqing at 23:30 (Beijing time) on the same day.

Mike Barkley, SilkAir's chief executive officer, said the opening of the air route would make it easier for business and tourist exchanges between Singapore and Chongqing, home to abundant tourism resources like the Three Gorges area.

Barkley said he believed more tourism exchanges between the two sides would be brought by the new air route. Businessmen and tourists had to transfer in Chengdu, capital of neighboring Sichuan Province, before the new air services.

SilkAir has opened five non-stop flights to the Chinese mainland, including Macao, Xiamen in eastern Fujian Province, Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, Chengdu and Kunming, capital of southwest Yunnan Province.

Source: Xinhua