Air France will open an air route linking Paris and Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province in 2006.

This will be the fifth air route run by the company in China, said Pan Song, general manager of the company's Asian regional office during his research in the city.

Chengdu is an air transportation center in western China with 10 million passengers annually. The next air link planned will be to the United States, said the source.

Air France now has air links to Beijing, Shanghai, southern Guangdong Province's capital of Guangzhou and Hong Kong.