From Xinhua.

China Southern Airlines on Wednesday launched direct flights from Guangzhou to Nairobi as part of an effort to boost trade between the two countries.

Also known as Canton, Guangzhou is a sprawling port city northwest of Hong Kong on the Pearl River.

The Chinese airline said the new service will fly three flights a week under its own code, giving passengers traveling to Guangzhou and beyond added choices.

“We are happy to open our second direct air route to Africa, having launched our first one between Shenzhen and Mauritius last year,” China Southern Airlines chairman Si Xianmin said after the carrier’s inaugural flight landed in Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

The airline carried more than 100 million passengers in 2014. It will fly to and from Nairobi every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Kenya’s national carrier, Kenya Airways, has been flying to Guangzhou for several years in a code-sharing arrangement with China Southern Airlines. This gives the two airlines access to each others route networks out of their hubs in Nairobi and Guangzhou.

Before the inaugural flight, the two airlines shared seven routes, allowing each other access to added destinations in China and South Asia for Kenya Airways and beyond Nairobi for China Southern.

Both airlines will now provide 20 flights per week on the new route under the code share, making it more convenient for passengers on transit to and from other African countries to China, South East Asia, North East Asia and Australia through its extensive route network.

Between 2009 and 2014, the number of Chinese visitors to Africa grew from 380,000 to 3 million.

Read more at Xinhua.