Sichuan Airlines in the network the desk measures
Computed on 2026-09-07 from AeroDataBox scheduled route statistics. The desk holds departure schedules for 571 airports, and for the 3U code that yields 283 city pairs across 127 of them. It is a measured sample of the published timetable and not the whole of it. Frequencies move with the season, and a quote is priced on the flights running the day you ask.
127airports on this carrier
29countries and territories reached
283scheduled city pairs held
1,463average daily flights across them
The schedule the desk holds carries the 3U code on 283 city pairs, reaching 127 airports in 29 countries and territories. Some of those sectors are flown by Sichuan Airlines and some are sold under its code and flown by a partner, which is how the published timetable states it and how a booking has to be read. 85.8 per cent of those airports sit on Asian time zones, and the next largest block is on European time zones.
01The longest sector held for the carrier is Guangzhou (CAN) to Toronto (YYZ) at about 12,441 km, and the shortest is Dazhou (DZH) to Chengdu (TFU) at about 296 km. 159 of the pairs are under 1,500 km and 17 run past 5,000 km, a medium haul shape that usually joins a Gulf departure at a single interchange. The airport that appears most often on those pairs is Chengdu (TFU), on 94 of them, which is 33.2 per cent of everything held under this code.
02The thickest sector under the code is Chengdu (CTU) to Beijing (PEK) at about 33.6 movements a day, which across a full day is roughly one every 0.7 hours. On a sector at that cadence a missed departure costs a wait rather than a night. That sector does not touch Chengdu (TFU), the airport this code is booked through most often, so the desk treats it as a seat sold under the code rather than flown by the carrier, and confirms the operating airline before it quotes. 138 of the 283 pairs run four or more times a day and 57 run once a day or less. The second figure is the one that matters when a consignment leaves the factory late, because on those sectors the desk will quote a different carrier rather than promise an hour it cannot hold. After Chengdu (TFU) the code leans on Chongqing (CKG) on 44, Chengdu (CTU) on 42, Kunming (KMG) on 21 pairs respectively, and those are the airports a dispatcher looks at second when the first routing is full.
The sectors that carry the 3U code most often
The 16 sectors the 3U code appears on most often, out of 283. Flights a day is the average daily scheduled movement on the busier of the two directions, as held on 2026-09-07. The schedule lists a code against a sector whether the carrier operates it or sells it, so read this as where the code can be booked. Distances are great circle, computed from the published coordinates of the two airports.
How a courier reaches Chengdu from the Gulf
The schedule the desk holds shows no 3U service into a UAE airport, so a courier does not board this carrier in Dubai. The routing is built the other way round: a Gulf carrier takes the first leg to Chengdu (TFU), and Sichuan Airlines carries the second. The desk holds no non-stop link between a UAE gateway and TFU either, which means two changes and a routing the dispatcher checks by hand before it quotes.
Night restrictions on the airports the 3U code uses
A hand carry is bought for the hours it saves, and an airport that will not take a movement after a certain hour can spend those hours back. 11 of the 127 airports this code is booked through carry a restriction the desk holds in writing, checked 2026-09-07. Exemptions and seasonal variations exist, and the desk confirms the position with the airport or the carrier before it books.
- Shanghai (PVG), night operations. Operates around the clock.
- Seoul (ICN), night operations. Operates around the clock.
- Frankfurt-am-Main (FRA), night restrictions. No scheduled take offs or landings between 23:00 and 05:00 local. A late evening departure that slips past 23:00 does not go until morning.
- Tokyo (NRT), night restrictions. Scheduled movements are limited between 23:00 and 06:00 local; late departures usually route through Haneda instead.
- Sydney (SYD), curfew. Curfew between 23:00 and 06:00 local. Jet departures are not permitted in that window and a late departure waits until morning.
- Singapore (SIN), night operations. Operates around the clock.
Published lanes the 3U code can carry half of
None of the 346 lanes the site publishes is flown end to end under this code. These 126 are the ones it touches at one end, which is how a routing gets built when no single carrier covers the whole distance: a Gulf carrier takes the first leg and this one finishes it. The lane index holds the rest.
- Dubai to Guangzhou, joined at Guangzhou (CAN), which this code reaches on 11 of its pairs.
- Dubai to Beijing, joined at Beijing (PEK), which this code reaches on 7 of its pairs.
- Abu Dhabi to Shanghai, joined at Shanghai (PVG), which this code reaches on 6 of its pairs.
- Copenhagen to Shanghai, joined at Shanghai (PVG), which this code reaches on 6 of its pairs.
- Dubai to Shanghai, joined at Shanghai (PVG), which this code reaches on 6 of its pairs.
- Munich to Shanghai, joined at Shanghai (PVG), which this code reaches on 6 of its pairs.
- Paris to Shanghai, joined at Shanghai (PVG), which this code reaches on 6 of its pairs.
- Shanghai to Guadalajara, joined at Shanghai (PVG), which this code reaches on 6 of its pairs.
The countries the 3U code opens
Of the 29 countries and territories reached, 21 are reached at a single airport, which for a courier means one airport of entry and a road leg for everything else in that country. The deepest is China with 91 airports on this code. The country desk for China sets out the customs practice, the working hours and the road legs behind these airports.
China (91 airports), Vietnam (3 airports), Canada (2 airports), Japan (2 airports), Malaysia (2 airports), Russia (2 airports), Thailand (2 airports), Australia (2 airports), Belgium (1 airports), South Korea (1 airports).
Where to go next on the 3U network
Each of the 127 airports above has its own atlas entry with the full destination list, and each of the 283 sectors can be opened in the calculator with the flying time, the distance and the delivery hour worked out. Start with the atlas entry for Chengdu (TFU), the route calculator with Dubai to TFU already filled in, the carrier index for the other 236 airlines the desk lists and the airport atlas itself.