Australia & China expand airline traffic rights en route to open skies. Xiamen Airlines to Sydney

A significant expansion in air traffic rights for Chinese airlines to Australia saw their stock prices jump 3-5%. Ironically, the growth made available from this agreement may mostly be unprofitable, at least in the short term. This explains why China is pursuing gradual liberalisation and not the open skies Australia wants. There is no doubt which group of airlines gain the most: it is the Chinese carriers, who already account for 92% of Australia-China non-stop seat capacity. Qantas, the only Australian airline to operate non-stop, is at 8%.

But Australia is still very much the winner in the bigger picture. Chinese visitor numbers to Australia in the first nine months of 2014 were up 13.4%, and overall volumes more than doubled between 2009 and 2013. As with other destinations in the region, Chinese are quickly becoming a key source market. For Sydney Airport, Chinese passengers account for half of its international growth while at Melbourne Airport China is its largest long-haul market. The expanded agreement is already bearing fruit with capacity additions from Air China and China Eastern as well as a new service from Xiamen Airlines to Sydney expected to be launched before the end of 2015.