China Eastern goes daily with Brisbane-Shanghai flights

UPDATE | China Eastern will begin daily direct flights between Brisbane and Shanghai from December 16, 2016, after a successful thrice-weekly summer service across January/February.

The daily flights – coded MU715/716 – will depart Brisbane at 11.45am to reach Shanghai's Pudong International Airport around 7pm, with an overnight return leg arriving into Brisbane at 9.45am.

Using China Eastern's latest Airbus A330 'A33E' jets, business class comes in a 2-2-2 configuration, spread across five rows with a total of 30 fully-flat beds.

PREVIOUS | China Eastern will launch direct flights between Brisbane and Shanghai in 2016, first as a temporary 'seasonal' service throughout January and February and then permanently returning from November on three days each week.

Australian Business Traveller sources also suggest that the airline aims to increase Brisbane-Shanghai to a daily flight "as soon as possible".

Inked as part of a joint venture with Qantas, the Roo will codeshare on China Eastern's flights which allows Qantas Frequent Flyer members to earn both points and status credits between Brisbane and Shanghai.

China Eastern put year-round Brisbane-Shanghai flights on the table in a move to soften ACCC resistance over fears that a hookup with Qantas would reduce rather than expand travel options between Australia and China.

The airline has also indicated it would boost its own Sydney-Shanghai and Melbourne-Shanghai services to operate twice a day, albeit initially only until February 2016.

Sydney-Shanghai is the only route which Qantas flies to mainland China, with daily Airbus A330-300 services departing just an hour before China Eastern's own A330-200s on the same route.

Qantas also codeshares on China Eastern's Melbourne-Shanghai and Sydney-Nanjing-Beijing flights.

Read more: Qantas: new Shanghai flights, lounge in China Eastern alliance

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David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.