Aerial photo taken on April 4, 2020 shows the Atlantis resort in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

A new Chinese airline called Sanya International Airlines was launched on Saturday in South China's Hainan Province, amid policies intended to help develop the island into an international free trade port.

China Eastern Airlines is the biggest shareholder of the new carrier with 51 percent. Other stakeholders are the Hainan Province Transport Investment Holding Co with 10 percent, Sanya Development Holdings with 10 percent, Juneyao Airlines with 15 percent and domestic online travel agency Trip.com Group with 14 percent, according to a filing by China Eastern Airlines to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Saturday.

The registered capital is 3 billion yuan ($424 million) to 6 billion yuan. 

Hainan is rich in tourism resources. With the deepening of Hainan's construction into an international tourism center, the island's tourism market is expected to usher in further development, and its geographic location means that air transportation is the main way for passengers to travel to Hainan, said the filing.

The new airline plan focuses on Hainan, which is already China's largest special economic zone. It comes after the nation announced a master plan on June 1, vowing to build Hainan into a globally influential high-level free trade port by mid-century, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

A free trade port system focusing on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation will be "basically established" in Hainan by 2025 and become "more mature" by 2035, under the plan jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, China's cabinet.

On Tuesday, China's aviation authority said it would hold trials of the Seventh Freedom of the Air in the Hainan free trade port, to boost the opening-up of the aviation industry.

Global Times