East Star To Take Off This Week

East Star Airlines, the fourth private airline in China and the first such aviation company from central China, will make its maiden flight on May 19.

East Star has spent RMB12 billion buying and renting 20 Airbus planes, the first of which will arrive in Wuhan in China's central Hubei Province on May 14.

Lan Shili, president of East Star, says that this first plane will be different from other Airbus planes because 40 seats have been taken away from the cabin to make it more spacious.

East Star's first plane will fly to Shenzhen, Haikou and Guangzhou and later the company will arrange flights to Sanya, Nanjing and Shenyang. It is expected that there will be one flight to those six cities each day.