A flight connecting the city of Wuhai in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region to Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong province started operating on Aug 21.

The new service is being offered by Spring Airlines to meet the increasing demand for economic and cultural exchange between the two cities.

It is the first flight operating between Wuhai and Shenzhen, and a single journey takes about 3 hours and 30 minutes.

The Wuhai-Shenzhen direct flight is served by the A320 aircraft and is scheduled to operate every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday until the end of the summer flight season in October.

The new flight departs from the Shenzhen Baoan International Airport at 14:40 and arrives in Wuhai at 18:10. After a 3-hour-45-minute layover at the Wuhai Airport, it leaves at 21:50 and arrives in Shenzhen at 01:30 the next day.

The new flight means what Wuhai is now connected by air to seven domestic cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi’an, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Hohhot.

In the first seven months of this year, Wuhai Airport handled a total of 2,968 flights, a year-on-year increase of 26.8 percent.

The airport's passenger throughput was 282,525, a year-on-year increase of 65.2 percent and the most in the history of the Wuhai Airport.