Qionghai Bo'ao Airport, located in China's Hainan province, reopened to commercial traffic on Thursday, December 29 with Air Guilin (GT, Guilin) flight GT1088 from Guilin.

The airport, whose construction began in March 2015, briefly opened in March this year to accommodate delegates to the 2016 Boao Forum for Asia Conference. It closed again shortly after to allow for the completion of a 600metre runway extension and a new international terminal in time for the conference's 2017 edition.

As the province's third international gateway, the completed airport will feature a 3,200 metre-long primary runway as well as a 9,900sqm domestic terminal. By 2020, it is expected to have an annual capacity of 480,000 passengers and 1,440 tonnes of cargo.

The People's Daily reports that aside from Air Guilin, other operators that plan to serve Qionghai in spring 2017 include Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, China United Airlines, Chengdu Airlines, Hebei Airlines, Lucky Air (China), and China Eastern Airlines. Provisional destinations are listed as Zhanjiang Wuchuan, Zhuhai, Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou, Taiyuan, Lanzhou, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Qingdao Jiaodong, Beijing Nanyuan, and Harbin.