TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - Following the Hong Kong-Hualien direct flight initiated in December, 2016, Taiwan’s Hualien County will see another international arrival with the first scheduled direct flight from Thailand’s Bangkok.

The first flight between Hualien and Bangkok took off in Thailand’s capital city at 4:30 pm today and will reach Hualien at approximately 8: 40 pm, the county’s second direct flight from an overseas destination.

The county gets the second international route after the Hong Kong-Hualien direct flight launched in December last year, a result of collaboration between the Hualien County Government and the Tourism Bureau's office in Thailand.

Vietjet Air, the Vietnamese first budget airline, will be the one operating the direct flights between the two cities on a five-day per week basis. The non-stop flight takes approximately four hours.

Hualien government has been working to advance the county’s tourism by expanding its local airport’s network, as part of the nation’s “New Southbound Policy.”

To further boost the county’s tourism industry, the local government is currently in talks with other airline companies to increase the number of direct flights to and from Hualien.