A new passenger airline took to the skies in northeast China on Friday (10 February 2017), Xinhua reports.

Longjiang Airlines, which is based in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, commenced operations with the launch of a flight to Zhuhai, in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong province. The route operates via Hefei, the capital of Anhui province.

In the coming months, the airline plans to launch more domestic routes from Harbin to cities including Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Haikou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. And in future it also intends to start operating international flights, initially to regional destinations such as Japan and South Korea and eventually to Europe and the US.

“We are bullish on the growth potential of the route, as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is about to open, and it takes only 40 minutes to drive from Zhuhai to Hong Kong,” Liang Fuhua, CEO of Longjiang Airlines was quoted saying.

Longjiang Airlines currently operates a fleet of three Airbus jets, with plans to expand its fleet to 25 aircraft by 2020.