A new cargo air route has become operational between southwest China's Chongqing Municipality and Europe, facilitating increasing international cargo transportation of this southwest China city, according to local aviation authorities.

The route is Shanghai -- Chongqing -- Moscow -- Luxembourg -- Shanghai. Boeing 747-400SF aircraft of the Yangtze River Express will fly the route in two flights every week. Every Wednesday and Sunday, the plane will take off from the Pudong International Airport of Shanghai, according to Zhu Zhiyong, general manager of the marketing department of the Yangtze River Express.

The Y87453 flight of the Yangtze River Express, carrying 95 tonnes of cargo, took off from the Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, flying for Moscow and Luxembourg. The flight, carrying mainly electronics products, marked the operation of the new cargo air service.

Zhu said that Chongqing has ushered in HP, Acer and other IT (information technology) projects, and that the IT industry is developing rapidly in the city. "This is an opportunity for us to enter Chongqing market," he noted.

Operation of the new route will help the company to build its air service network for Russia with Moscow as the hub, and another web for the central and western Europe with Luxembourg as the center.

Further, the air routes connecting Chongqing with Taipei and Guangzhou, which became operational a month earlier, will help the city to become a nexus between the cargo markets in Europe and China's Taiwan.

Thanks to the boom of IT industry, Chongqing airport's international cargo transport volume soared 580 percent year on year to 18,000 tonnes in the first four months of this year, according to Shao Jin, vice general manager of the Chongqing airport ground service company.

Currently, 80 percent of cargo departures from the airport are IT products.

Jade Cargo and TNT Group respectively opened cargo routes from Chongqing to Europe in 2009 and 2010.