China Southern Airlines to launch Adelaide-Guangzhou flights

There might be some overlapping on Sundays when CZ663 arrives just before MH136 and SQ278 depart, but there shouldn't be anymore pax issues than there already is. However I do agree AAL will have to rearrange the area concerned. The whole International departures should be enlarged and more seats added as mentioned. Especially if another international airline requires a slot at this time of day. Would there be a lounge? That would be interesting to know for those with SkyTeam Elite Plus. Cheers

China Southern already fly to Brisbane and Perth.

joel1986, I believe Rishi may have been referring to other Chinese carriers :)

"....that's three airlines announcing routes from mainland China to Australia just in ths week.."

It's far more rapid & frequent than I had originally anitcipated.  I suspect the catalyst for all these activities no doubt @ least partially trace back to HNA Group's recent large move /grand battle plan re the AU-China mkt....every competitor @ home is trying to move into position to compete in that same mkt.

Unlike most other nations, the int'l route granting regime of Beijing for its home carriers is very old-school /highly regulated /non-transparent.  1 int'l route 1 Chinese carrier is the typical rule rather than the exception.  If a Chinese carrier doesn't apply for a route today, it may lose it to a potential domestic competitor tomorrow.  So unlike carriers in other nations, Chinese carriers can't afford to conduct detailed mkt demand /fare /econ viability forecast on potential new int'l routes....will be too late to apply by the time proper mkt studies are done.  This is fundamentally why every Chinese carrier seems to be planning/launching new AU routes more or less @ the same time.

Of course, mkt reality will eventually settle in and I don't expect all of these new China-AU routes by Chinese carriers will survive....may be half of them will be gone in 3-5yrs.  The fact that many of these new routes are not served fm these airlines' strongest home hubs(And therefore domestic connecting opportunities) provides a clue.....

MU is also starting PVG-BNE in December. We might see HU operate BNE-HKG when VA operates BNE-PEK too.

Ditto. Don't know what the fuss is about and certainly can't imagine flying them to other parts of Asia, North America or Europe. 

For mainland carriers to make an impact, the image of China itself needs to change, the way the Gulf has with theirs. The entire ecosystem supporting the airline and tourism in that market needs to change. To an extent the airline's image is also impacted by the country's foreign policy.

Airlines are not just logistic companies. They are the essence of nation states personified. 

The Chinese Big3 and their subsidiaries are not just unexciting but actually pretty bad in terms of pax experience.  On the other hand, airlines within HNA group are generally pretty good even by world std.  I hv tried @ least 4 of them on many occassions and @ worst, my experience is on par with those on a typical QF or VA flight.  E.g., which operator dare to deploy horizontal flat bed J seats for 2-3hrs sectors on a regular basis?...and @ least 2 HNA brands hv been doing that well before VA dreamed up the idea of deploying The Business for SYD/MEL-PER trunk.

I dont know, but I try not to apply a board brush approach to label all carriers fm 1 huge nation with a huge mkt as the same.

Those full-service carriers are sometime cheaper than Scoot and AirAsiaX.

So, basically, you get what you pay for, as long as they keep the number of takeoffs the same as the number of landings... 

We've confirmed with an airline spokesperson that these flights are indeed going ahead as planned, so best just to be patient.

Cool :) thanks for letting me know!