Australia And China Agree Open Aviation Market
7 December 2016
Australia and China have settled arrangements for a landmark open aviation market that removes all capacity restrictions with immediate effect between China and Australia for each country’s airlines.
The agreement also includes open code sharing provisions and a significant expansion of “5th freedom” traffic rights, which allows Chinese and Australian carriers to service destinations between and beyond both countries.
"The outbound China market is predicated to double to over 200 million travellers annually by 2020, this agreement will help Australia snare a larger slice of that, creating more Australian jobs and economic growth,” said Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the Hon Steven Ciobo MP.
The Australian Government has already introduced fast-track visa processing for Chinese tourists and confirmed that 10-year multiple entry visas for eligible Chinese visitors will be introduced later this month.
According to the latest international visitor survey released today Chinese visitors spent over $9 billion in the 12 months to September 2016, an increase of 18 per cent over the previous year.
