Qantas flies Sydney – Beijing in time for Chinese New Year

You can now fly Qantas to Beijing from Sydney, just in time to celebrate the start of the Year of the Rooster. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce flagged off the inaugural flight just after lunch on 25th January 2016 for the twelve hour journey to Beijing’s Capital International Airport Terminal 3.

Launch celebrations took place in both cities and apart from including the traditional Chinese Lion Dance, passengers received ang pows (red packets traditionally containing cash) containing chocolates to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Beijing is Qantas’ third destination in Greater China, after Shanghai and Hong Kong. The new service offers the capital’s 21 million residents a direct gateway to Australia while presenting a major opportunity for the Australian tourism industry as well as Australian companies doing business in China under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

With a growing Chinese middle class keen to venture overseas, Australia has already proven a great attraction and this new link will enable tourists from China to directly access one of Australia’s major tourist destinations. You can fly Qantas to Beijing daily on the Airlines popular 235 seat Airbus A330-200 aircraft.

Inbound flights on the new route are timed to connect with Qantas’ domestic network to popular onward destinations including Melbourne, Brisbane and Hobart, as well as the airline’s Tasman services to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.

Qantas will be working with Tourism Australia, Destination NSW and across its own marketing channels to showcase Australia for a Chinese audience.

Qantas will work with  its joint venture partner China Eastern on sales, giving Qantas passengers a choice of 130 weekly return flights between Australia and China, plus close to 256 connecting services to domestic destinations within China in conjunction with its partners China Eastern and China Southern. In addition, the Jetstar Group of airlines offers more than 30 return flights a week into eight Chinese cities from Singapore and Vietnam.

You can book your trip to Beijing on the Qantas website, or through your preferred travel partner.

SCHEDULE Sydney – Beijing – Sydney

** all times are local, Sydney time is 2 hrs ahead of Beijing, except during daylight saving, which is 3 hours ahead.