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Sydney will be the first Australian gateway to see flights to Beijing’s new airport, with a service starting near the end of this year.
China Southern will fly non-stop to Beijing Daxing Airport four times per week from 13 December, with 28 business class seats and 258 economy class seats on each of its A330s.
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Beijing Daxing, which opened in 2019, is located to the city’s south in the middle of Beijing, Tianjin and Xiong’an, and currently hosts 216 passenger routes to 197 destinations in 25 countries and regions. It complements Beijing Capital Airport, still the main international gateway for the Chinese capital.
Sydney will be the first destination in Oceania, adding to Daxing’s 35 existing international destinations.
“We are proud to be the first airport in Australia offering flights to Beijing Daxing, providing passengers with unprecedented choice and convenience when travelling to Sydney,” said Greg Botham, group executive for aviation growth and group strategy at Sydney Airport.
“This marks another step in our commitment to improving connectivity with mainland China. With the market recovering to nearly 90 per cent in the first half of 2024 and peaking at a remarkable 97 per cent in July, these new flights will not only add much-needed capacity, but also provide a strong impetus for further recovery, reinforcing Sydney’s position as the premier gateway for traffic to and from China.”
Sydney is the largest gateway between Australia and mainland China, with 49 per cent of passengers in the 12 months to June 2024.
The airport is currently served by Air China, Beijing Capital Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines, with Juneyao Airlines to begin Shanghai flights in December.
Sydney’s international recovery has continually outstripped domestic, with the airport earlier this year reporting 3.8 million international passengers in the second quarter of 2024 – a 94.3 per cent international recovery rate on Q2 of 2019, compared to 90.5 per cent domestic.
“We saw strong international passenger volumes throughout Q2 with seat capacity growing across the markets of Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam versus the same period last year,” Sydney Airport CEO Scott Charlton said in July.
“This was underpinned by increased frequencies including Thai Airways adding a second daily service to Bangkok; Jetstar putting on a new, three-weekly service to Osaka; and VietJet Air adding a twice-weekly service to Hanoi.”
