WUHAN — China Southern Airlines Thursday announced that it will launch direct flights to link the central Chinese city of Wuhan with London in January next year.

This will be the sixth intercontinental air route for the Hubei provincial capital, after flights to Paris, Moscow, San Francisco, Rome and Sydney.

A single trip to London will take about 13 hours.

The service is expected to help meet rising overseas travel demand around the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 16, 2018.

Many residents in nearby provinces can choose to fly from the airport in Wuhan, which has high-speed railway links with many cities and flights to destinations in Southeast Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, the airline said.

London is one of the busiest air transport hubs in the world, with a large number of passengers transfering to areas in western and northern Europe, as well as eastern America every day.