China Eastern pledges new Brisbane-Shanghai flights

China Eastern says it will launch year-round flights between Brisbane and Shanghai if the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approves its joint venture with Qantas.

The ACCC has previously been lukewarm on the proposed hook-up, claiming it would be of "significant public detriment" on the basis that both airlines would have "increased ability and incentive to limit capacity and/or increase airfares on the Sydney-Shanghai route".

However reports that China Eastern has put year-round Brisbane-Shanghai flights on the table in a move to soften ACCC resistance over fears the tie-up would compress rather than expand travel options between Australia and China.

Sydney-Shanghai is the only route which Qantas flies to mainland China, with daily Airbus A330-300 services departing just an hour before China Eastern's own A330-200s on the same route.

Qantas also codeshares on China Eastern's Melbourne-Shanghai and Sydney-Nanjing-Beijing flights.

China Eastern has already indicated it would boost its own Sydney-Shanghai and Melbourne-Shanghai services to operate twice a day, albeit initially only during September and February. "but would be extended to year-round operations if the joint venture stimulated demand sufficiently" reports the AFR. 

Story from http://www.ausbt.com.au/china-eastern-pledges-new-brisbane-shanghai-flights