Virgin Australia alliance partner Hainan Airlines is expanding its presence in Australia with new Brisbane-Shenzhen nonstop flights launching in September.
The Chinese carrier plans to serve the route twice a week with Airbus A330 equipment, Brisbane Airport said in a statement on Friday.
The inaugural service takes off on September 21.
Hainan is part of HNA Group’s stable of airlines. Brisbane will be its third Australian destination. Currently, the airline flies to Melbourne and Sydney from Changsha and Xian.
HNA Group is one of Virgin’s major shareholders, having accumulated a 19.99 per cent stake in 2016. In June, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approved Virgin and HNA Group’s proposed alliance for a five-year term in a draft determination.
The ACCC had already granted interim authorisation in March, allowing Virgin to begin ticket sales for a five times weekly Melbourne-Hong Kong service due to kick off on July 5.
In its draft determination, the ACCC said the alliance would “assist in the commencement of new services between Australia and Hong Kong and Australia and mainland China by Virgin Australia”.
