Travellers at Meilan International Airport in Haikou, Hainan province, Sept 19, 2015. [Photo/VCG]

HAIKOU - Meilan International Airport in Haikou, capital of South China's island province of Hainan, was awarded Skytrax five-star certification on Friday.

It is first airport on the Chinese mainland, and the world's eighth, to receive the certification.

Working for over 215 airlines and 75 airports around the world, Skytrax, based in London, is one of the global leaders in airline and airport service benchmarking. The five-star certification demonstrates high recognition of an airport's performance in the global aviation industry, according to the agency.

"Meilan airport has kept improving its services in passenger check-in and security checks to make it winner of the award," said Skytrax Chairman Edward Plaisted.

Meilan airport won the Skytrax four-star certification in 2011 and started to build itself into a five-star airport in May 2012.

Currently, the airport covers an area of 881,000 square meters with 78 aircraft stands. It operates about 238 routes for 18.8 million passengers annually.

"Winning the award is a new start for our airport. We will continue improving our services to provide passengers with a better flight environment in the future," said Wang Zhen, chairman of the board of Haikou Meilan International Airport.