Chinese carriers boost capacity to Melbourne

Melbourne Airport has announced that three Chinese airlines will operate daily services to Melbourne from later this year.

“In November, China Eastern will be increasing to daily Shanghai services from four flights per week and in December Air China will be increasing its services from Beijing and Shanghai,” said Melbourne CEO, Chris Woodruff. “This follows an earlier announcement by China Southern that its flights from Guangzhou are increasing to daily services from November.”

The boost in capacity comes after Australia and China recently increased the capacity available between the two countries under their bilateral air services agreement. Hainan Airlines is also expected to soon start flights to Australia, with a number of senior executives of its parent company HNA group recently visiting the country to look at possible investment opportunities in the tourism sector.