Victoria’s aviation reaches new heights

Following the addition of five new carriers in the past 12 months, Victoria now has 31 international airlines flying directly in and out of Melbourne Airport. With three new Chinese carriers choosing Melbourne, Victoria has confirmed its position the preferred aviation gateway for Chinese carriers to Australia.

All time international passenger records have been broken this year with 34 million passengers passing through Melbourne Airport’s terminals alone (year ending June 2016), 9.2 million of which were international passengers equating to an increase of 9.5 per cent on the previous year. These latest figures consolidate a record seven years of continual growth in international passenger arrivals at Melbourne Airport.

Victoria’s share of Australia’s international passenger market is now more than 25 per cent with Melbourne consistently outperforming Sydney and Brisbane in international passenger growth.

Melbourne has achieved the fastest average growth from Chinese visitors over the past five years of all major Australian airports: 18.2 per cent each year on average for the year ending August 2016.

With more than 824,000 Chinese visitors passing through Australia’s second largest airport in the 12 months ending August 2016, China is now the number one visitor market for Melbourne Airport.

To meet demand and drive future growth in visitation, Victoria continues to improve air connections by attracting international airline services, establishing new routes and increasing seat capacity with existing carriers.

New airlines

Connections with China, Victoria’s largest international market, have increased significantly with new Melbourne services established with three additional Chinese airlines in the past 12 months bringing the total number of Chinese carriers serving Melbourne to seven.

• The fourth-largest airline in China, Hainan Airlines commenced two direct routes to Melbourne from the cities of Xi’an and Changsha with twice weekly flights from November 2016 using its fleet of Airbus 330-200 aircraft.
• Beijing Capital Airlines commenced a thrice weekly Shenyang – Qingdao – Melbourne service late September 2016.
• Xiamen Airlines commenced a twice weekly non-stop service from Xiamen in Fujian Province, China, from July 2016. This increases to thrice weekly in December 2016.

In addition, Air China reintroduced its daily service from Beijing to Melbourne late October 2016.

Tigerair Australia commenced a new direct daily service to Bali in March 2016 and low cost airline Scoot commenced five times weekly services direct from Singapore in November 2015, connecting Victoria to 89 destinations through Scoot’s international partners.

New services

National carriers are also expanding international services with Qantas commencing a daily flight between Christchurch and Melbourne on 4 December 2016 and between Tokyo and Melbourne from mid-December 2016. Virgin Australia will commence a five times weekly service between Los Angeles and Melbourne in April 2017.

Increased capacity

International airlines already servicing Melbourne directly are also continuing to increase their capacity to meet demand.

In August 2016, Singapore Airlines was the first airline to operate the new A350-900 to Melbourne. Thai Airways and Cathay Pacific will begin operating the A350-900 to Melbourne in early 2017.

In June 2016, Etihad Airways upgraded one of its daily Melbourne services to an A380 aircraft, adding 51,000 seats per annum. This helps build access to 51 destinations including the UK and Continental Europe.

A similar move by Emirates in March 2016 added a further 54,000 seats to its annual Melbourne capacity.

Meanwhile Sichuan Airlines, China Southern, China Eastern and Air China all increased capacity to Melbourne in order to meet additional demand over the peak Lunar New Year season. Similar capacity loading is anticipated in early 2017 which will coincide with Melbourne’s season of major events.

Melbourne’s international carriers

Airlines currently routing direct flights between international markets and Melbourne are: AirAsia X, Aircalin, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, Air Vanuatu, Beijing Capital Airlines, Cathay Pacific, China Airways, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Fiji Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Hainan Airlines, Indonesia AirAsia X, Jetstar Airways, Malaysian Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Qantas Airways, Qatar Airways, Royal Brunei Airlines, Scoot, Sichuan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Tigerair Australia, United Airlines, Vietnam Airlines, Virgin Australia and Xiamen Airlines.