China Eastern to increase Shanghai-Sydney flight services to meet growing demand

China Eastern Airlines announced plans to increase its services between Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) and Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) due to growing demand.

The airline plans to expand its daily service to 11 flights per week from June 23, up from the previous increase to daily flights on February 2.

The additional services will be operated by the Boeing 777, in addition to the existing Airbus A350-900.

China Eastern Airlines currently operates a daily service between PVG and SYD with the Airbus A350-900.

The new services will operate four days a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

The first flight of the additional service (MU736) will depart from SYD at 20:30 and arrive at PVG at 05:15 the next day. The return flight (MU735) will depart from PVG at 00:10 and arrive at SYD at 12:35.

The Civil Aviation Administration Of China has set a goal to recover at least 75% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year, with Chinese travel reaching only 252 million passenger trips in 2022.

The China International Capital Corporation (CICC) predicts that the financial recovery of the Chinese big airlines may be faster than market expectations and sees international and regional operations returning to at least 60% of pre-2019 levels this year.