IN BRIEF | SkyTeam alliance member China Eastern Airlines is planning to launch Sydney-Wuhan-Xi’an flights by the year’s end.
Using an Airbus A330 aircraft, the service would directly link Sydney and Wuhan by October 2016, pending the success of an application filed with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and would allow passengers to connect onwards to Xi’an under the same flight number.
While tight-lipped on an exact launch date, flight schedule or any potential codeshare deal with joint venture partner Qantas, a China Eastern spokesperson noted to Australian Business Traveller that “we will have official announcement once everything is confirmed.”
This latest play follows a string of news from Chinese airlines over the past months as China Eastern also prepares to resume Brisbane-Shanghai flights.
Joining those: new Sydney-Xi'an and Sydney-Changsha flights with Hainan Airlines, Melbourne-Qingdao-Shenyang flights with Beijing Capital Airlines, and both Sydney-Chengdu and Melbourne-Shenzhen from Air China.
Not forgotten either is China Southern as it gears up to launch Adelaide-Guangzhou flights, following its Sydney-Shenzhen launch earlier this year.
Also read: Flying to secondary Chinese cities: your options explained
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Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
14 Sep 2012
Total posts 381
This is great news for business travel to China. I wish QF was more aggressive in the China space, as much as I try to be loyal to their 'via SHA/HKG' route the onslaught of direct services to 1st and 2nd cities by Chinese carriers is becoming hard to avoid when my schedule is tight.
03 Aug 2015
Total posts 58
China - Australia tourism and air travel is becoming the shining light of Australia's growth at the moment, yet our mainline carrier has 1 destination in China - come on Qantas
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
31 Aug 2015
Total posts 121
All of Australia's airlines desperately need new aircraft. They were waaaay too slow to order new ones. Now, we are seeing foreign carriers expand rapidly in Australia whilst the executives of Australian airlines are talking of "better aircraft utilisation". I personally believe that the future of air travel is smaller widebody aircraft and more point-to-point routes, especially considering the geographical location of Australia.
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