HAIKOU, May 15. /TASS/. The Hainan authorities announced the commissioning of a new airport in Dongfang — Datian— in the western part of the island this week, according to the Hainan Daily.

The construction of the airport began in November 2018 and was carried out in two stages. The airport's territory, belonging to category A1 (with at least ten passenger boarding gates), occupies 162,800 square meters. Datian's runway is 800 meters long. The airport can simultaneously receive 14 aircraft and is designed primarily for small aircraft, and is also fit to serve helicopters.

According to the local administration, Datian will be used mainly for servicing charter flights and flights to islands in the South China Sea, as well as for energy resources exploration research and carrying out rescue missions. “The airport will provide a wide range of services for the aircraft,” said an airport's representative. 

Three key Hainan airports are located in the northern (Meilan in Haikou), southern (Phoenix in Sanya) and eastern (Boao) parts of the island. Daily they serve dozens of international flights, directly connecting approximately 40 cities. In 2019, Hainan launched direct flights to Russia's Blagoveshchensk, Zhukovsky, Kazan, Samara, Tomsk, Ufa and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.