BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- One more Chinese city is added to the destinations of direct flights from Brunei's capital of Bandar Seri Begawan on Thursday.

According to a statement from the Royal Brunei Airlines (RB), the sultanate's national carrier has launched twice weekly direct scheduled services to Haikou on southern China's Hainan province.

"We are pleased to introduce Haikou, the capital of Hainan province, to our growing network of scheduled flights to China," RB's CEO Karam Chand said.

"Adding Haikou to our scheduled services will support our airlines' network development and builds on the strong bilateral relationship between Brunei and China," he said.

"The new route presents a very special opportunity for both cities to boost tourism and trade sectors. In addition to Haikou, we have already launched Nanning and Hangzhou routes and soon Changsha which will operate effective Jan. 15, 2019," he added.

With the new move, RB now operates direct flights to five Chinese cities - Shanghai, Hong Kong, Nanning, Hangzhou and Haikou.