The airline based in central China said in a statement that it gained approval from aviation regulators earlier this month and "expects to open flights between the city of Wuhan and Hong Kong and Macau in September.
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Hong Kong and Macau are still considered international cities even though the two former colonies were returned to Chinese sovereignty in the late 1990s.
East Star became the first of a growing group of private Chinese carriers when it started flying two years ago in the hopes of gaining a slice of one of the world's fastest growing aviation markets.
But state carriers, including the three biggest airlines -- Air China, China Eastern and China Southern -- enjoy a monopoly over international flights as well as lucrative domestic routes like those between Beijing and Shanghai.
New carriers in China face a host of restrictions that puts them at a huge disadvantage to the bigger, government-linked airlines.
This has meant slow development for private and budget airlines