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Sydney Airport will be Shanghai-based Juneyao Air’s first Australian destination, beating Melbourne by just two days.
The Chinese carrier will operate four weekly 787-9 flights starting 17 December, ahead of Melbourne on 19 December. It will be the ninth concurrent mainland Chinese carrier to fly into Sydney, and will add 53,000 weekly seats, pushing mainland China capacity to 101 per cent of pre-COVID levels.
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The services to Shanghai, which will help fill a gap left behind by Qantas axing its Sydney–Shanghai route earlier this year, have the potential to become daily flights over peak months in 2025.
According to Scott Charlton, CEO of Sydney Airport, Sydney captured 49 per cent of incoming mainland China passengers in the 12 months to June 2024.
“We are proud to welcome Juneyao Air to Sydney Airport, the home of Chinese airlines in Australia. The introduction of Juneyao’s services in December provides passengers from mainland China with unprecedented choice and convenience when travelling to Sydney,” he said.
“This expansion is a strong vote of confidence in Sydney as the premier gateway to Australia and underscores the enduring appeal of New South Wales to Chinese travellers.
“We’re especially pleased to have worked in partnership with Destination NSW and the NSW government to deliver this service.”
The move will make NSW the state with the highest seat capacity from mainland China, said state Tourism Minister John Graham.
“Increasing aviation capacity into NSW is critical to our plans to grow tourism’s contribution and the 117,000 businesses that make up the sector,” he said.
“The NSW visitor economy, worth $50 billion a year, is the largest among Australian states.”
Juneyao joins fellow Chinese carriers Air China, Beijing Capital Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines in offering services from Sydney to mainland China.
The announcement comes within weeks of Melbourne Airport hailing its own Juneyao route as the airline’s first service into Australia, with CEO Lorie Argus saying at the time that it was an “incredible vote of confidence in Victoria”.
“Melbourne Airport will now be served by more international carriers than ever before, and with the average daily international flight worth $154 million to the Victorian economy, it highlights the need for our investment in projects such as the international terminal upgrades and $3 billion third runway,” she said.
“The third runway will ensure the airport is not capacity constrained in the future, so our existing airlines can grow and new players can enter the market, which means more choice for travellers.”
