Direct Melbourne-Hangzhou flights to start in June

Beijing Capital Airlines will begin flying nonstop from Melbourne to Hangzhou in June, linking the coffee capital of Australia with the tea capital of China.

The 11-hour journey will be flown three times a week on Beijing Capital’s Airbus A330, which offers lie-flat beds in a 1-2-1 layout in business class.

According to Beijing Capital’s website, flight JD386 will depart from Melbourne at 7am on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The overnight JD385 from Hangzhou will depart at 3.50pm on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

The Melbourne-Hangzhou flights will complement Beijing Capital’s existing service to Qingdao, a city known for its beer as the home of the Tsingtao brewery founded by Germans in 1903.

Hangzhou, home to around 11 million people, is the eighth non-stop destination in mainland China to forge a connection to Melbourne. Melbourne Airport CEO, Lorie Argus, believes the flights will undoubtedly increase opportunities for Victoria’s tourism, education, and agriculture sectors.

“Mainland Chinese travellers have traditionally been one of the highest spending markets,” she notes. Chinese tourists spent a total of $5.8 billion in Australia in 2023, although this is little more than half of their 2019 spend. The number of Chinese passport holders travelling to Victoria now sits at just 62% of pre-pandemic levels.

Despite this, Melbourne continues to lead the way in Australia’s international aviation rebound. Turkish Airlines, a Star Alliance member, is flying to Istanbul via Singapore, with non-stop Melbourne-Istanbul flights on the cards for 2026. Vietjet now connects Melbourne to both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, while December 2023 saw the start of Air India’s non-stop flights to Mumbai. South Korea’s Asiana Airlines will also run four flights per week between Melbourne and Seoul during its 2024 seasonal service from July to September.