As far as aviation is concerned, COVID-era border restrictions are essentially a thing of the past unless you live in Mainland China. Now that countries in the northeast of Asia, such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, are again welcoming visitors and tourism, airlines from those countries are quickly spreading their wings, particularly to popular destinations in Australia.
Photo: Airbus
Extra seats to Brisbane and Auckland
Taiwanese carrier China Airlines has quickly seized opportunities, including increasing frequency on its Taipei-Brisbane-Auckland route. China Airlines currently operates the service with an Airbus A350-900 three times a week from its home base at Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport (TPE). The Airbus A350-900 has a capacity for 306 passengers in a three-class layout of 32 business class, 31 premium economy and 243 in the economy cabin.
The latest rotation of the route, as tracked by flightradar24.com, departed late from TPE at 00:42 yesterday for the first leg to Brisbane Airport (BNE), a flight covering 4187 miles (6738 kilometers). The aircraft operating flight CI53, registration B-18901 with manufacturer serial number 049, took 8:12 hours to get to Brisbane, landing at 10:54. The onward sector departed BNE at 13:20 and arrived at Auckland Airport (AKL) at 19:04.
The six-year-old A350 was on the ground for around two hours in New Zealand before returning to Brisbane as flight CI54, where it landed at 21:29. The final leg departed BNE at 23:36 and landed back in Taipei at 05:39 this morning. Today it will operate a return trip from Taipei to Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) before an overnight flight across the Pacific to Vancouver (YVR) in Canada.
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of China Airlines’ first flight to Brisbane, a city with the largest Taiwanese community in Australia. Starting on January 1st, the route will be increased to five times weekly and as well as bringing in around 160,000 seats per annum, the service will also connect to the China Airlines network of nearly 150 global destinations. The flights from Brisbane to Auckland and Taipei will operate on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Queensland is a major food exporter to Asia, and the two extra flights will each add around 15 tonnes of export capacity per week. Chilled beef is currently the number one commodity going to Taiwan from Brisbane, where a speedy trip to the market is of prime importance. Brisbane Airport Corporation executive general manager of aviation, Ryan Both, welcomed the extra flights by saying:
“China Airlines is a high-quality carrier with a significant worldwide network. They bring to our tourism destinations visitors from high-spending markets like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and their home of Taiwan – all markets thirsty for quality air capacity to Queensland.”
Cargo is big for China Airlines
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Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying
According to ch-aviation.com, China Airlines has 14 Airbus A350-900s with a relatively young average age of 5.4 years. Apart from the A350s, it has a mix of widebody passenger aircraft that includes 22 Airbus A330-300s and ten Boeing 777-300ERs, supplemented by nine A321neo and 15 Boeing 737-800 single-aisle aircraft. As common with other Asian carriers, China Airlines has an extensive freight business, which operates with 18 Boeing 747-400FSCD and four 777-200F freighters.
It looks like quite a busy time for China Airlines as it adds frequencies on international routes and prepares to cope with the Lunar New Year demand.
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