It doesn’t seem so long ago that the ‘Adelaide International Airport’ was just a tin shed and Ansett were flying in daily. The idea of a double deck Boeing flying into the airport was a bit of a joke, and getting overseas without a connection was unheard of. Could you smoke in the terminal at some stage? Probably during the 80s in your khaki short-shorts.
Anyway, fast forward around 15 years and Adelaide is now preparing to host regular direct flights between our fare city and Guangzhou, one of the largest Southern cities in mainland China. Now, that’s significant. Not only is China one of our strongest business partners, Chinese flights to Australia account for a large proportion of tourist air travel coming into the country each year. Sydney to Shenzhen was launched earlier this year and recently Melbourne to Xiamen was also added to the direct routs on offer, with a Brisbane route also in the works. Adelaide’s announcement of direct flights is not only timely, it comes from China Southern Airlines directly, meaning the demand is coming from the mainland itself.
The Adelaide – Guangzhou flight path looks incredibly luxurious as well, with Airbus A330-200 to offer business class, economy, first class and ‘economy plus’ seating. The plus is some extra leg room, just in case you were wondering.
First class is world standard, with single-row, spacious and private first class suites:
Business class still looks a great option though, configured in 2-2-2 rows, each transforming into beds if required.
Considering all the talk of economic stagnation in South Australia, a connective artery to one of the world’s largest economic powers, which they’ve initiated themselves, is a very welcome sight to see. Tourism is not the only industry that will see benefit, it’s likely to assist our already growing relationship with the region across agricultural, arts, education, health, mining and resources, and wine sectors as well. Adelaide already shares a sister relationship with the city of Shandong towards the mid west of China, but no doubt this opportunity will align alongside strategies already being implemented by the Government as part of our South Australia – China Strategic Review, which is a riveting read if you’ve got a few hours and are sick of re-reading the 50 Shades series.
This route will be live by December. Currently single stop-over flights (in Sydney) are already being offered via the China Southern Airlines website. And when you consider that Qatar Airlines also added daily flights to Doha in May 2016 as Australia’s first regular Airbus A350 service, it seems our city of churches is becoming quite the focal point for international travel.
Images courtesy of Southern China Airlines
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