China Eastern will operate year-round flights between Brisbane and its Shanghai hub from November 2016.
While the Skyteam member has already committed to serving the Queensland capital over January and February 2016 as a seasonal service, November will mark the start of the airline’s permanent presence on the Brisbane-Shanghai route.
Brisbane Airport chief executive Julieanne Alroe said having a nonstop flight to Shanghai, one of the world’s key financial hubs, would benefit tourism and improve business links between Australia and China.
“For all the Queensland and Chinese companies who are set to benefit from the upcoming Free-Trade Agreement, this new flight will make doing business together easier, faster and more efficient,” Alroe said in a statement on Thursday.
“Shanghai is a mega city of some 14 million people and is headquarters to numerous Chinese private companies and state-owned enterprises which have operations in Brisbane and throughout Queensland.”
China Eastern will use Airbus A330s on the route three times a week and its alliance partner Qantas will place its QF airline code on those services.
In August, the ACCC approved China Eastern and Qantas’s application to partner on Australia-China services, albeit with conditions attached, for the next five years.
China Eastern flagged launching new services, as well as boosting frequencies on its existing routes to Sydney and Melbourne, as part of its submission to the ACCC.
