Sansha, the southernmost island city of China in the South China Sea, welcomed its first regular civil charter flight on Thursday.

The plane took off from Meilan International Airport in Haikou, capital of Hainan province, at 8:45 am on Thursday and landed at Sansha Yongxing Airport after a one-hour flight.

For years, people had to take a ship to get to Yongxing, but now they have more choices.