East China's Fujian Province is planning to expand its civil aviation sector by building more airports and offering more flights to both domestic and overseas destinations.

The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) has agreed to give the province, which sits on the western side of the Taiwan Straits, both policy and financial support.

The goal is to transform Fujian into a major channel for cross-straits air transport, while accelerating cross-straits cooperation in civil aviation.

A press release distributed on April 5 said that Fuzhou Changle and Xiamen Gaoqi airports would be developed into air hubs.

The province will also expand its existing airports as well as build new facilities to form a network.

The CAAC will support the province's efforts by approving new international routes to Fujian to places like Tokyo and Seoul. It will also endow Fuzhou with the fifth freedom right, which means the right or privilege, in respect of scheduled international air services, granted by one country to another to put down and to take on, in the territory of the first country, traffic coming from or destined to a third country.

Xiamen is already one of the few airports in the country to have been designated a "fifth freedom right" airport.

Fujian Province now ranks seventh nationwide in terms of passenger volume handled. It served 13 million passengers last year. The province would like to handle 19.5 million passengers by 2010.