Jetstar touches down as first foreign airline to use the new terminal in Haikou Meilan International Airport

Jetstar today celebrates a milestone in the Chinese province of Hainan with the opening of the new terminal in Haikou Meilan International Airport.

Jetstar flight 3K817 from Singapore to Haikou will be the first international flight to arrive at the new terminal.

Since December 2009, Jetstar has worked closely with the Haikou Municipal government and the Haikou airport authorities to bring in more international tourists to the ‘Hawaii of China’. In May 2012 Jetstar created a new low fares option for travel between Perth in Australia and Haikou via Singapore with a connecting fare and itinerary.

Jetstar Asia CEO Bara Pasupathi said, “Haikou is a very special city for the Jetstar Group. It became the first mainland China destination for the Jetstar Group when we started services from Singapore.

“Since 2009 we have seen double digit increases year on year of passengers from Hainan to Singapore and beyond. Last year alone, we saw a 37 percent increase in the number of Hainan passengers travelling with us.

“As we enter into our fifth year of flying from Haikou, we anticipate that we will carry more than 200,000 passengers to and from Haikou before the end of the year.”

Jetstar operates up to four weekly flights from Haikou to Singapore with connections through to Perth.

Jetstar currently operates more than 50 weekly flights to seven Greater China destinations – Guangzhou, Haikou, Shantou, Hangzhou, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Jetstar is also going through the approval processes to establish Jetstar Hong Kong.