At 00:03 am on April 3, the chartered flight QW6190, carrying 132 Vietnamese passengers, touched down at Yichang Three Gorges Airport after a voyage of over three hours from Ho Chi Minh City, the capital of Vietnam. This aerial event marks the running of the Yichang-Ho Chi Minh City international route, a second cross-border flight put into use following further opening of the local aviation port. It is also the inaugural group of travelers under the project of “2024 Vietnamese-chartered planes to visit Yichang.”

　　Operated by Qingdao Airlines, the Yichang-Ho Chi Minh City international route adopts the A320 aircraft model with flights scheduled every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The outbound flight QW6189 leaves Yichang at 10:30 (Beijing time, the same below) and arrives in Ho Chi Minh City at 13:25. The return flight QW6190 departs Ho Chi Minh City at 14:25 and lands in Yichang at 18:25.

　　The itinerary for the first group in Yichang spans 3 days and 2 nights, featuring visits to attractions such as the Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba Dam, the Xiling Gorge, the temple of Qu Yuan, and the Xiling Shangri-la, offering a glimpse into the landscapes and cultural heritage of Yichang, also known as the emerging world-class hydropower city, in Central China’s Hubei Province.

　　In 2023, the route network of Yichang Three Gorges Airport expanded to cover 51 destinations, with a total of over 3 million trips made. Since the expansion, the airport administration has seen over 44,000 inbound and outbound tourists.

　　Reports suggest that Yichang will further facilitate international air passengers and cargo channels to trigger a new wave of tourist surge by prioritizing source markets like South Korea and China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, based on the demands of the Yichang-Jingzhou city cluster’s economic growth and social development. (Reporters/ Zhao Jingyi & Tangyang Chenlei, Correspondents/ WangTing & Li Jiamian)