You may or may not have heard of them but Beijing Capital Airlines who are based in you guessed it, Bejing wants to start flying into Brisbane from January 2018.

Airlineroute who is an extremely reliable source of information posted this on Twitter today:

Beijing Capital Airlines applied with the CAAC for 4 weekly Beijing – Brisbane service, from Jan 2018

— Airlineroute (@Airlineroute) April 26, 2017

This wouldn’t be their first Australian destination, in September of last year, the carrier commenced services from Shenyang, through Qingdao then onto Melbourne.

Beijing Captial Airlines is the subsidiary of Hainan Airlines which already have a presence in Australia. Hainan already has services from both Changsha & Xi’an to Sydney.

The airline is also part of the HNA group which have a partnership with Virgin Australia. In May of last year, the HNA group made an investment of $150 Million dollars into Virgin Australia.

Per Virgin Australia,

“The alliance will accelerate and support our access to the Chinese market, which is Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable inbound travel market.

“HNA Aviation fly nearly 100 million passengers each year and we look forward to working collaboratively with them to drive inbound visitation to Australia, resulting in significant benefits for the Australian tourism industry and broader economy.

“Importantly, this strategic alliance with HNA Aviation, Hong Kong Airlines and HK Express is a key plank in Virgin Australia’s International strategy and will help our business deliver long-term growth and success.”

What aircraft would be used if the flights are approved?

If the flights do get approved, I’d imagine that the carrier will use their A330-200’s which currently operate on the Melbourne service. The aircraft consists of 36 Business Class seats and 186 Economy seats.

Bejing Captial Airlines A330 (Image – Melbourne Airport)

The Asia market in Brisbane is growing quite quickly, in the past year we’ve had China Eastern launch services from Shanghai, Malindo Air commence services from Denpasar and Kuala Lumpur, Cathay Pacific up gauge aircraft and Singapore Airlines upgrade their aircraft on the route from Singapore.

Featured Image – Melbourne Airport