WUHAN, May 29 (Xinhua) -- China Southern Airlines on Wednesday launched a direct air route linking Wuhan, the capital city of central China's Hubei Province, with Istanbul in Turkey.

The route, operated by a Boeing 787 wide-body aircraft, is the first direct flight to Istanbul in central China.

The outbound flight is scheduled to depart Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 3:40 p.m. Beijing time every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and arrive in Istanbul at 9 p.m. local time. The return flight will leave Istanbul at 11:20 p.m. local time and land in Wuhan at 1:20 p.m. Beijing time the next day.

The direct flight will cut travel time between the two cities to about 10 hours. Passengers traveling to Istanbul from Wuhan previously had to transfer in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou.