Asia is becoming more and more accessible to Aussies everyday, as airlines add new, regular services between the two destinations.
According to Australian government statistics, the number of Australians travelling to Asia jumped to 3.4 million last year. An increase of over 100,000 on the prior year.
Of those travelling to the region, the majority headed to Bali (801,000) and Thailand (568,000) – destinations with regular services operating from Australia.
The biggest jump in Australian visitors was seen in Japan, with a growth of 35,000. The growth was pegged to the country’s tourism recovery post-2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
Hoping to capture the returning market, this week Qantas revealed it will launch direct flights between Brisbane and Tokyo.
The new direct service will operate four times a week from 1 August. They compliment the airline’s existing daily flights between Sydney to Haneda.
In total, Qantas will fly around 4,000 seats per week between Australia and Japan.
Meanwhile, budget airline, Scoot is hoping to fly more Australians to Asia, with new five-times weekly flights between Melbourne and Singapore.
Last year, Singapore saw Australian arrivals grow by 33,000 on the prior year to 313,000.
Scoot’s boss said the decision to add the new route was in response to demand for low-cost flights to Singapore.
“We’ve heard loud and clear the demands of Scoot to fly to Melbourne, and we’re delighted to finally be able to answer them.”
Campbell Wilson, Scoot Airlines chief executive
The flights will commence from 1 November next year on the airline’s 787 Dreamliner.
We’ve all heard officials say China is one of the fastest growing tourism markets to Australia, but Australian is also a rapidly growing market for China.
Last year, the country welcomed 344,000 Australians – a growth from the 361,000 the prior year and a huge jump from 81,000 at the beginning of the century.
To meet growing demand for travel to China, China Southern added the large A380 on two daily Sydney to Guangzhou flights.
The plane replaces the A330 over the holiday period until 28 February.
The A380 carries 186 passengers more than the A330, allowing the airline to carry almost 400 passenger more between the two destinations.
Meanwhile, Cathay is also hoping to capture the holiday market to Asia, with extra capacity between Australia and Hong Kong.
This has been done by replacing the Airbus A330-300 on select flights with the larger Boeing 777-300ER.
The airline currently operates 28 flights a week or four daily services between Hong Kong and Sydney.
The Airbus A330-300s had been operating on all services until last week when the larger Boeing 777-300ER took over three flights per week.
From February 2015, the 777-300ER will be used on one daily flight between Sydney and Hong Kong. The A330-300 will continue to operate the other three daily services.
Utilising the B777 adds 1,372 seats per week between Australia and China.
