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Virgin Australia to begin China flights next year
Friday, 25 Jul, 2016
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Virgin Australia is ramping up plans to spread its wings to Hong Kong and the China mainland.
Virgin chief executive John Borghetti said the company will begin talks with new Chinese investor Nanshan Group to look at forming a strategic alliance.
Both Nanshan and fellow Chinese conglomerate HNA Group recently invested in Virgin and together own a combined 40% of Virgin Australia.
Virgin has already laid out tentative plans for a tie-up with HNA.
"China will be very important to us going forward and that’s why it’s great to have HNA on board," Borghetti told The Australian.
"We have applied for the rights and got them in Australia, but now there is a lot of other work to be done to get the slots and everything else in line before we go there."
Virgin aims to start flying to Beijing and Hong Kong in collaboration with HNA later next year and would add almost 2,000 seats a week to China, once approval is granted.
It is also looking to fly to Hong Kong seven times a week.
Nanshan owns Qingdao Airlines while HNA has numerous airline interests including major Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines.
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