CANBERRA APPROVES MORE FLIGHTS BY CHINESE AIRLINES

MELBOURNE, Oct 20 (Bernama) -- The Australian Government has negotiated a
temporary increase in the number of weekly plane flights between Australia and
China.

The extra flights will be made available to cater for an expected spike in
demand between November and the end of February next year.

Over the past year, more than 410,000 Chinese visitors have travelled to
Australia, an increase of 16 percent previously.

Already all three Chinese airlines which fly to Australia, Air China, China
Southern and China Eastern, have indicated they will be increasing the frequency
of services.

A new fourth airline,Hainan Airlines,will introduce a non-stop service between
Sydney and Shenzhen.

The number of weekly flights between the two countries will increase by 60 per
cent from 37 to 59 between November and February, Australia's Transport Minister
Anthony Albanese, said in a statement.

The extra flights, which include a new non-stop service between Brisbane and
Guangzhou, will create 6300 more seats each week between Sydney, Brisbane and
Melbourne and the five Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen
and Hangzhou.