A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-700 taxis to the runway at Kunming Changshui International Airport, Kunming of Yunnan province, June 28, 2012. Changshui International Airport officially went into operation Thursday morning. [Photo/Xinhua]

The new Kunming Changshui International Airport officially went into operation Thursday morning, Xinhua News Agency reported.

A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-700, flight MU5936, took off from Changshui airport at 8:12 am, becoming the airport's first flight. It flew to Lhasa in Tibet autonomous region, with a stopover in Diqing.

Kunming is the capital city of Southwest China's Yunnan province, and the new Changshui airport is designed as an aviation hub to connect Southwest China to Southeast and South Asia.

With a total investment of 23 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), Changshui airport is expected to serve 38 million passengers and handle 303,000 flights annually in the short term. The long-term objective is 65 million passengers and 456,000 flights, according to Xinhua's report.

The old Wujiaba airport in Kunming stopped operation Wednesday, and airline companies operating there began to ferry their aircraft and ground facilities to the new Changshui airport since June 25. The number of flights in Kunming will return to normal by July 4 if all goes well.