A direct air route was launched on July 6 connecting the southern resort island of Phu Quoc in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang with China's Guangzhou. — Photo tienphong.vn

KIEN GIANG (Biz Hub) — A direct air route was launched on July 6 connecting the southern resort island of Phu Quoc in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang with China's Guangzhou.

The route is operated by the China Southern Airlines (CZ) with three flight a week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. It is expected to raise the number of foreign tourists to the island to 20,000.

The first flight with tourists from China and Europe on board landed on the airport on July 6 afternoon.

More directs flights between Phu Quoc and China's localities are scheduled to start in July. Vietnam's low-cost airline Vietjet will open its service from Phu Quoc to China's Kunming, while China Eastern Airlines (MU) will operate another air route from Zhejiang to Phu Quoc.

According to the Phu Quoc International airport, numerous foreign airlines such as Thomson Airways, Ikar Airlines, Nordwind Airlines and Korean Air have launched direct services to the island from Sweden, Russia, China, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Cambodia.

In the first half of this year, the airport served 42 international flights with 4,925 passengers.

The Airports Corporation of Viet Nam is accelerating the implementation of the second phase of the project to upgrade the Phu Quoc International Airport's infrastructure facilities to better serve domestic and international flights to the island.— VNS