MACAO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Macao has approved a total of 198 extra and charter flights to and from cities of Chinese mainland, China's Taiwan region, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan to meet the travel demand for rush hour during the coming Chinese New Year, the special administrative region's Civil Aviation Authority said here on Tuesday.

Civil Aviation Authority of Macao (AACM) said the extra and charter flights have already started operation recently and will end on Feb. 28. The operators of these flights are Air Macau, Juneyao Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and East Asia Airlines.

Some 151 flights carry out the service to China's Shanghai, Wanzhou, Chengdu, Changzhou, Zhengzhou and Shenzhen (Shenzhen with helicopter service), 25 flights carry out the service to Taipei of China's Taiwan region.

Ten flights operate between Macao and Danang of Vietnam, eight flights between Macao and Bangkok of Thailand. Service to Osaka and Sapporo of Japan is done by four flights.

The number of flights for this Chinese New Year has increased by almost 150 percent compared with the number in 2018, when AACM approved 80 extra and charter flights.