GUANGZHOU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China's Hainan Airlines has added a direct air route from the southern boomtown of Shenzhen to Tel Aviv, Israel's second-largest city, according to Shenzhen International Airport.

The flight HU743, operated by a Boeing 787, departs Shenzhen at 1:35 a.m. Beijing time and travels 12 hours to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv at 7:35 a.m. local time each Monday and Friday.

Hainan Airlines launched three air routes connecting Tel Aviv to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.

In 2015, the number of Chinese tourists to Israel was a little over 30,000, while in 2017 and 2018, over 100,000 tourists from China visited Israel, according to statistics.