Qantas to Make a Triumphant Return to Beijing after 7 Years

14th Oct 2016

Australian flag carrier Qantas Airways is set to make a triumphant return to Beijing after being away for seven long years. The airline will begin daily flights between Beijing and Sydney in January next year.

Flights will depart from Sydney every day at 1:50 pm and will arrive in Beijing at 10:40. The return flight will leave the Chinese capital after midnight and arrive back in Australia at 2:25 pm.

Qantas will operate an Airbus A330 aircraft on this route.

The move definitely makes sense, knowing that China will likely overtake New Zealand and Australia's number one international tourism market,

Speaking about bringing back Beijing as one of Qantas' destinations, Alan Joyce, CEO of the airline said the following:

"One of every four visitors to Australia is now Chinese. So we are really well-positioned to take advantage of that, and this is the latest step in Qantas's strategy to take full advantage of the Asian growth and tourism opportunities for Australia."

Joyce also added:

"Flying to the Chinese capital is a major moment and a significant event for us as a carrier. We are very proud to be back in Beijing, and think this service will be amazing and the jewel in the crown of the Qantas network."

While passengers will undoubtedly be happy about the new route Qantas will establish, there is someone who might hold a bit of a grudge.

Qantas' main rival, Virgin Australia also planned to launch a service to Beijing in June, but Qantas beat them to a punch with this announcement.

However, Mr Joyce denies Qantas's decision to launch the route now has anything to do with Virgin.

He said:

"This has nothing to do with what Virgin is doing. We always play our own game; we have the best international network, the best domestic network and the best regional network."

Virgin still has a planned service to Hong Kong, also in June, but it's a small consolation since Qantas also operates flights into HK as well as Shanghai and codeshares with China Eastern on Sydney-Kunming, Sydney-Hangzhou and Brisbane-Shanghai routes.