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Hainan Airlines returns to Melbourne
The recovery of Victoria’s top tourism source market is gaining pace with the return of China’s Hainan Airlines to Melbourne Airport.
Hainan has relaunched its twice weekly Melbourne flights from Haikou.
It marks the return of seven of the eight mainland Chinese carriers that operated out of Melbourne in 2019.
Operated by an Airbus A330, the Melbourne flights will increase weekly capacity between Victoria and China by over 1,200 seats.
In 2019 Chinese visitors spent $3.4 billion on trips to Victoria- which represented 38% of all international overnight visitor spend in the state.
That was more than the next ten markets combined.
It is a significant step in the recovery of the Chinese market, says chief of Aviation, Jim Parashos.
“Before the onset of Covid-19 the Chinese market was Victoria’s biggest inbound market and the resumption of Hainan Airlines services will help rebuild our tourism.”
“One of the current barriers to a full recovery is the lack of group travel from China but we are hopeful of a resumption in the coming months,” Parashos said.
“China currently represents the third largest inbound market behind only New Zealand and India.
Hainan Airlines joins Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines and Tianjin Airlines in offering direct flights from mainland China.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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