Japanese and Chinese air carriers started operating flights on Sep. 29 linking Tokyo's Haneda airport and Shanghai's Hongqiao airport, to mark the 35th anniversary of diplomatic normalization between the two countries.

The inauguration of the service showed that Japan and China are becoming more closer, Japan's land and transport minister Tetsuzo Fuyashiba said at a ceremony held in Haneda airport. He said he believed that exchanges between the two neighbors would be more frequent.

After the ceremony, the first flight, carrying 247 passengers, departed Haneda for Shanghai's Hongqiao airport.

The flights between downtown areas of the two metropolises provide faster trips than those between Narita and Pudong airports, previously the only direct route from Tokyo to Shanghai. Haneda and Hongqiao airports are mainly used for domestic flights and are closer to downtown areas of the two cities.

Four roundtrip flights per day will travel the new route, one operated by each of Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines.

The air transport services between China and Japan have been growing steadily in the past three decades or so, with 16 Chinese and Japanese airlines now operating a total of 738 flights per week between 19 Chinese cities and 17 Japanese cities.