The Taiwanese airline will operate three round-trip flights between the Osaka airport and New York per week.

"We had wished to serve direct flights to New York ever since our airport opened so we will go all out to support (China Airlines' new service)," said Shinichi Fukushima, president of Kansai International Airport Co.

The number of flights between the airport and the mainland United States peaked at 63 to six destinations in 1998 but none of them were on the East Coast.

The flights decreased after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the airport only hosted a total of 14 flights per week to San Francisco and Seattle before Thursday.