JAKARTA — Indonesia's private airlines Lion Air has expanded its flight services to Chinese cities with the latest one connecting China's Zhengzhou city with Denpasar, Bali.

The Lion Air's Zhengzhou-Denpasar route was slated to begin on Thursday from the Chinese historical city which is the capital city of central China's Henan province.

Lion Air assigned Boeing 737-MAX 8 plane, codenamed JT 2652, to serve the initial flight.

The initial reciprocal flight from Denpasar to Zhengzhou had already been set in the same day with a flight codenamed JT 2653.

In the following days, Lion Air is set to open four flight schedules per week to serve the Zhengzhou-Denpasar route.

The Zhengzhou-Denpasar route has added Lion Air's flight services in China. The Indonesian budget airlines previously opened services to Chinese cities of Guangzhou, Changsha, Shenzhen and Shanghai.

"The opening of our flight service plying Zhengzhou-Bali route was due to the increasing eagerness of Chinese tourists to visit Indonesia," Lion Air Group Public Relations Manager Andy Saladin said in a statement on Thursday.

Indonesia Tourism Minister Arief Yahya warmly welcomed the opening of Lion Air's new flight service in China, saying that it has opened more flight seat capacity from China.

The minister said that the historical and cultural city of Zhengzhou has great potential for Indonesia to tap benefit from its tourism through the new direct flight linking the city to Denpasar.