HAIKOU - An airport built to serve the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference on China's southern island province of Hainan will soon resume service after being closed since March for construction of an extension.

An Air Guilin flight departing the town of Boao, the conference venue, to the tourist city of Guilin in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, will mark the re-opening of the airport on Thursday.

The first stage of airport construction began in March 2015 and opened for a trial run a year later to serve chartered domestic flights for last year's conference.

The airport was shut down after the forum for construction of the second phase, featuring a runway extension and a new terminal, and is expected to be completed in January 2017.

The airport has also applied to operate international airlines for the upcoming 2017 forum, which will welcome state leaders, government officials, businessmen and academics from across Asia next March.