Hainan Airlines is launching a new route linking Haikou in Hainan Island with the Malaysian Borneo city of Kuching.
It will start flying to Kuching around March next year after the airline inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sarawak Tourism Board to promote the service.
Exact launch date and frequency is still to be decided.
"The airline now is on its final proposal stage of obtaining landing slots pending approval by the Civil Aviation Administration of both China and Malaysia," said Sarawak’s tourism, arts and culture minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
"With the latest development and initiative, we can move confidently to solve our connectivity challenges, which admittedly have been the main hindrance to our tourism development over the past years," he said.
The proposal is for two to three flights a week to begin with on Boeing 737-800 aircraft with 164 seats including eight in business class.
