North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region opened new international air routes on Friday to Thailand and Russia.

A Thai AirAsia Airbus 330 will fly Ordos to Pattaya once a week, covering the distance in 4.5 hours.

A new link from Ordos to Russia's Irkutsk run by Tianjin Airline will fly  every Monday and Friday taking 2.5 hours.

The airport was accredited by the State Council as an international airhub in January and its first international route was to Seoul and plans flights to Ulan Bator and Hong Kong.

Ordos is about 300 km from the regional capital Hohhot. Its name translates into "many palaces" in Mongolian. The city, with a population of 1.94 million, has rich coal and natural gas reserves. For tourists, its major attractions include the tomb of Genghis Khan, deserts and ruins of an ancient civilization dating back almost 50,000 years.