Longjiang Airlines (LJ Air), the first local carrier in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, took into the skies in northeast China on Friday.

The inaugural flight LT430, operated by an Airbus A321 aircraft, took off from Harbin Taiping International Airport at 8:50 a.m. and reached in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province at 3:05 p.m., with a stopover in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province

On Feb. 9, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) officially issued an air operator's certificate (AOC) to the startup carrier, giving green light for its maiden flight.

Currently, LJ Air now has two single-aisle A321 aircraft. In the first half year, the third aircraft, an A320, will join in its fleet. By the end of the year, the airline plans to acquire six more aircraft, and expand its fleet to 25 aircraft by 2020.

In the coming months, the airline plans to launch more domestic routes from Harbin to cities including Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Haikou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. And in future it also intends to start operating international flights, initially to regional destinations such as Japan and South Korea and eventually to Europe and the U.S.

"We are bullish on the growth potential of the route, as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao bridge is about to open, and it takes only 40 minutes to drive from Zhuhai to Hong Kong," said Liang Fuhua, CEO of LJ Air.

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