Strategic Airlines Applies for Chinese Route Authority

Australian carrier Strategic Airlines has made a formal application to secure an allocation of capacity to operate services between Australia and China. The company is seeking 1,911 seats per week of the overall capacity allocated to Australian operators between the two countries, and plans to begin flights from this September. It says it will “fully utilise” this capacity by August 31, 2012 and requests approval to operate for a five year period from the date of determination. The application follows just a month after the carrier secured approval to begin flights to the US, although it has yet to announce its operational plans.

Although an estimated 1.42 million O&D passengers travelled between Australia and China in the past year, a massive 28.7 per cent growth over the previous 12 months, there is a lot of competition, with over 50 weekly flights, and there are more to come. China Southern Airlines has links to Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from Guangzhou; Air China has flights to Sydney from Beijing and Melbourne and Sydney from Shanghai; China Eastern also flies to Melbourne and Sydney from Shanghai; while Qantas has a Sydney – Shanghai service.