Travel Daily | MU inaugural

It was a colourful send off from the city’s Lukou Airport with Chinese girls performing traditional dances in the departure hall for the 248 pax on the A330-300 aircraft.

Travel Daily was on board and spoke to one young Chinese man who said he was very excited at coming to Sydney as he wanted “a bikini Christmas.”

Last year, nearly 600,000 Chinese travelled to Australia, while 138,000 Australians visited Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, “but we will now see these numbers rise with our new direct flights,”
said Shengji Ba, Vice-Director of China Eastern’s Jiangsu Division.

MU’s Chief Pilot, Zhishui Lu commanded the 300 seat twin-engine jet on the 10hr 30 minute journey, the first international long-haul flight from the Province which was met on arrival in Sydney by Airport and local tourism officials.

“China is our fastest growing market with Chinese pax overtaking the UK to become our biggest overseas market, after New Zealand,” but I predict China will be three times bigger than the Kiwi market by 2020,” said Max Moore-Wilton, Sydney Airport Corporation Chairman in welcoming a 40-strong delegation from Nanjing.

“We’re China-ready,” said Moore-Wilton.

He noted that MU has been flying to Sydney since 1996, but as of today, there are now 44 flights a week by China Eastern and other carriers from four main cities in China which will be worth an estimated $74 million to the NSW economy.