At 19:30 on October 10, a flight with Mongolian carrier Hunnu Air arrived at Sanya Phoenix International Airport from the Russian city of Ulan-Ude shortly before continuing onwards to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar. This marks the official opening of the third passenger route at Phoenix Airport to enjoy fifth-freedom rights (meaning the right or privilege, in respect of scheduled international air services, granted by one State to another State to put down and to take on, in the territory of the first State, traffic coming from or destined to a third State).

The first flight on Sanya’s third "fifth freedom" passenger route (Ulaanbaatar ⇌ Sanya ⇌ Ulan-Ude) landed smoothly at Sanya Phoenix International Airport.

Using the E190 narrow-body, twin-engine jet airliner made by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer, this route is currently operated once weekly by Mongolian carrier Hunnu Air. Flight number MR815 from Mongolia to China to Russia departs from Ulaanbaatar every Thursday at 22:10, arrives in Sanya at 03:10 Friday morning, departs for Russia at 04:10 and arrives at the the destination city, Ulan-Ude, at 11:30. The return leg, flight MR816, takes off from Ulan-Ude at 13:05 every Thursday, arrives in Sanya at 20:05, and departs for Ulaanbaatar at 02:05 Friday morning (all times are listed in Beijing time and may change subject to decisions of the airline).

The first flight on Sanya’s third "fifth freedom" passenger route (Ulaanbaatar ⇌ Sanya ⇌ Ulan-Ude) landed smoothly at Sanya Phoenix International Airport.

The opening of this route is the concrete practice and important achievement of Sanya City in implementing regional cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This route will further strengthen connectivity between China, Mongolia and Russia in transportation and logistics, economy and trade, and tourism and culture; will promote the in-depth implementation of the BRI in northeast and southeast Asia; and will inject new impetus into promoting regional economic integration and development.

With 680,000 international passengers traversing the airport every year, Sanya currently operates 37 international and regional routes to 28 cities around the world. There are currently plans in the works for new routes to and from Malaysia and Korea.