Chengdu aims to increase the number of its international flights to 98 by opening five new ones this year.

The targets for passenger and cargo throughput are 48 million and 620,000 tons respectively.

A government official of Chengdu said the city will step up efforts to connect Chengdu with cities in Europe, North America, Middle East, Australia and Africa this year as part of its drive to build a comprehensive transportation hub in Western China.

According to municipal plan, Chengdu’s airports are expected to handle 63 million passengers and 1.1 million tons of cargo annually by 2020.