IN BRIEF | Qantas’ low-cost offshoot Jetstar will begin serving mainland China from later this year with the launch of non-stop flights between Queensland’s Gold Coast (Coolangatta) and Wuhan – Central China’s most populous city.
Served by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 21 seats in business class and 314 seats in economy, return flights will run twice-weekly from September 29 on Tuesdays and Saturdays, subject to regulatory approval, with a flight time of roughly 9.5 hours in each direction.
Jetstar's reclining Boeing 787 business class seats: similar to premium economy
“Gold Coast Airport has been in collaboration with City of Gold Coast, Gold Coast Tourism and Tourism and Events Queensland for a number of years to bring this service to fruition,” said Gold Coast Airport COO David Collins.
“We have known for some time that the demand is there for direct services between Gold Coast and China so we are confident this twice-weekly service will perform strongly,” he added.
With Jetstar’s main focus of the route being inbound traffic from China rather than Aussie travellers heading abroad, the airline is teaming up with Chinese firm Dalian Wanda Group to market and sell its service to the people of Wuhan.
Naturally there will still be seats available on the route for passengers beginning their journey in Australia, who can book directly with Jetstar as they would when heading to other destinations.
Also read: Review: flying on Jetstar's Boeing 787 Dreamliner
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Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 355
Didn't see that one coming! Now if only the QF Group could get some Qantas flights into Beijing.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
19 Mar 2014
Total posts 569
Neither did I but geez it makes sense!
01 Feb 2012
Total posts 370
I'll say... no wonder the article says this is not really to cater for Australian travellers. There are a lot of places I want to see all around China but certainly nothing around Wuhan at all. It's a pretty industrial area.
Xian, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Nanjing would all have been far more interesting for the Australian traveller..!
22 Mar 2013
Total posts 28
It's really glad to have a direct flight from Australia to my hometown, albeit it's Gold Coast.
This one actually had been in discussion in Wuhan's newspaper for a long time since last year. I thought it was smoke back then, as many different routes had been discussed, such as CA's direct flight WUH-MEL, and CZ's stoppover flight WUH-CAN-MEL, however, none of them materialized.
I believe the biggest push behind the route is Wanda, which as described had built a large resort in GC, which hopefully can attract more tourists from China. This route is more like a tourist charter flight, which is usual in China, that most of the passengers will come from Tourist Group. Wanda, and it's travel agencies will certainly utilize the only direct flight to central China to make some money out of it.
In the last few years, quite a few international flights being added to Wuhan, such as AF's CDG, and CZ's SFO and DME. It also can be connected to many Asian destinations. Plus recently 72 hours free visa transit started in Wuhan which is another bonus.
Personally, I really want to see what's the time schedule of this route.
24 Apr 2012
Total posts 2509
"Personally, I really want to see what's the time schedule of this route."
We've asked Jetstar for this although the final schedule hasn't been locked in yet – only that the flights will depart Australia on Tuesdays and Saturdays on a B787 from September 29, and that the flights will be roughly 9.5 hours in duration.
22 Mar 2013
Total posts 28
The time I gathered from local news is OOL - WUH 10.55 - 18.30, WUH - OOL 20.20 - 07.25 +1, aligned with QF's asian route tradition, north bound day time, and south bound overnight.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
02 Jul 2011
Total posts 1380
Potentially also a cheap route to Shanghai - 5hr on bullet train from Wuhan into Shanghai
Also a useful airport for those wanting to visit the beautiful karst river district of Guilin - again a 5hr bullet train ride
22 Mar 2013
Total posts 28
Well, the flight from WUH - SHA/PVG, most of the time, will be significantly cheaper than bullet train, and I really don't recommend for the time and hassle getting from airport to train stations, at least not until the subway airport line get ready by the end of 2016.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2011
Total posts 363
Never heard of Wuhan!
10 Sep 2012
Total posts 149
Not to worry, the 10.2 million people who live there have probably never heard of you, either.
10 Sep 2012
Total posts 149
Or Auckland, for that matter.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2011
Total posts 363
Woah... Calm down. I said I hadn't heard of it, not that I hate the place or it's a silly route.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Mar 2014
Total posts 221
When will they release the fares?
Interesting option into Asia.
Cathay Pacific - Asia Miles
01 Feb 2015
Total posts 113
Well that was unexpected!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 Sep 2014
Total posts 84
Where are they getting the plane to do this? They have three more 787s to be delivered which are replacing existing A330s. Either they have more slack in their current schedule than I thought or another destination is getting a reduction in the number of flights a week.
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