Hainan Airlines based in China 's southernmost province of Hainan will soon operate international flights to southeast Asia and a number of neighboring countries and regions, airline president Chen Feng announced on December 30.

Chen said that the airlines plans to begin the regular and irregular passenger and cargo flights to these destinations by the end of March 2000, and Hong Kong and Macao will most likely be the first choices.

Hainan Airlines, the country's second listed civil aviation company, was founded in 1993, and it currently has assets of 6.5 billion yuan, 3,500 employees, and a fleet of 31 aircraft for its more than 100 national flights.

By October this year, Hainan Airlines had flown a total of 700 million kilometer and had carried nearly 10 million passengers. It has become one of the top eight civil aviation companies in China in terms of transport volume.