SANYA -- Direct flights have begun between Sanya, a tourist destination in South China's Hainan province, and Jakarta in Indonesia.

Flight JT2871 leaves Jakarta every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 6:55 pm local time and arrives in Sanya at 11:50 pm. The return flight departs from Sanya at 1 am and arrives in Jakarta at 6 am local time.

The flight is jointly operated by a local airline company in Hainan and Indonesia's Lion Air. Operations already started on Saturday night.

Indonesia is the sixth ASEAN country connected with Sanya by air. There are plans to connect Sanya with Laos and Myanmar.

Sanya is directly connected with 21 foreign cities. Sanya has seen more than 3,500 international flights this year, a year-on-year increase of 27.6 percent. The number of inbound and outbound tourists has increased 121 percent to 470,000.