Australia and China are allowing more flights with each other, and paving the way for new routes, in an air services pact that follows a historic free-trade agreement they struck last year.
China is Australia’s top trading partner and its most valuable tourism market, with almost 800,000 tourists spending about A$5 billion (US$4 billion) in the previous financial year.
The new pact, which Australia announced on Friday, lets both nations’ carriers immediately add 4,000 seats a week to current caps between Australia’s major gateway cities and the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
An additional 7,000 seats are set to be phased in weekly over the next two years.
“Last year, 100 million Chinese traveled abroad, and this is set to double to some 200 million by 2020,” Australian Minister of Trade and Investment Andrew Robb said.
“Tripling aviation capacity from China into Australia over the next two years will ensure we are well placed to capture this growth,” Robb said in a statement.
The free-trade pact signed in November last year had been more than a decade in the making, and boosted ties significantly.
The air services deal also allows for the expansion of traffic rights to airlines to fly beyond the two nations by October next year, paving the way for new routes.
The pact recognizes the sharp growth of emerging markets in China, allowing airlines from both nations the same increase in capacity between gateway cities besides Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Existing unlimited passenger services between China and Australian locations such as Cairns, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Darwin are set to continue.
The agreement cuts regulations Australian airlines face in China, by dropping a requirement for government approval of airfares.
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