China Southern Airlines starts flying between Darwin and Guangzhou

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A new air route between Darwin and the Chinese city of Guangzhou launched in December. It is the first time the Northern Territory has had direct flights to China since a route folded in 2020. As well as China, the NT has seen new flights added to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in the past 12 months, sparking hope for growth in trade and tourism.

Transcript

00:00From a top-end tarmac bound for China, the territory's newest flight route takes off.

00:10Bookings are pretty solid to start off the new service and the message is getting out there.

00:15China Southern Airlines will now fly between Darwin and Guangzhou three times a week,

00:20a boost of 52,000 seats annually.

00:24What an amazing city, 32 million people, some amazing sights to see, Canton, the Pearl River,

00:32like it is an amazing place, it's an amazing place for Australians to explore.

00:36They're the first direct NT flights to China since the departure of Donghai Airlines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

00:44The new route comes with a confidential cost to NT taxpayers that the government believes will pay off.

00:51For every Chinese tourist that comes into the Northern Territory for a very small investment,

00:56we get around about a $3,000 return, so it's quite significant.

01:00Over the past 12 months, Darwin has also seen new airline routes opening up to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

01:07Officials hailing the flights as a two-way win for trade and tourism.

01:12I think it's great that there's more flights for the Northern Territory.

01:17Connectivity has always been an issue, particularly air connectivity.

01:21With more international flights to Asia, there's hopes that the added interest

01:25could also put downward pressure on domestic prices and flight times to the Territory.

01:31The more international services that we can attract here, then that cascades through to the domestic services.

01:36The gateway to Asia opening even wider.

01:40That's why, the observation of the industry, we have around about another two.

01:44It's very important.

01:45That's why, the fact that we want to bring into the established materials.

01:47However, the first year of Iraq is not only applying for international transportation.

01:48I think that there's much more international experiences than the festival.

01:49The first year of Iraq can't be around a world destination.

01:50I think that there's just a lot of people that have about a world destination.

01:51It's more there.

01:52It's kind of a place that we can choose from the country.

01:53We can try to approach this as well as a international relationship.

01:54Ifsheid, it's a national relationship with one whole person,

01:56the last month is known as a roda and the time as a student.

01:57The newflatable has always been around.

01:58It's the one of the people that preferable for the country

01:59and our relationship, because we need to re-it.

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