SINGAPORE, June 27 -- SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, commenced its maiden flight to China's city of Hangzhou on Friday, according to a media release issued by the company.

It is the company's eighth destination in China and other destinations include Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Xiamen.

"SilkAir will be the only full service carrier connecting Hangzhou directly to Singapore", said Leslie Thng, chief executive of SilkAir."

"We are confident that this service will see strong demand from the different market segments, flying into Hangzhou and flying out of Hangzhou to our combined SilkAir and Singapore Airlines network. "

Established in February 1989 as Tradewinds the Airline and evolved into SilkAir in 1992, the full service airline operates more than 350 weekly flights to 48 destinations in 12 countries.