Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

AIR China will put a new international air route linking Shenzhen and Melbourne, Australia, into service from June 2.

The flight CA767/8 operates every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. It leaves from Shenzhen at 12:55 a.m. and arrives in Melbourne at 12 p.m. The return flight departs from Melbourne at 9 p.m. and arrives in Shenzhen at 4:25 a.m. the following day, the official websites of Air China and Shenzhen Airlines showed.

For the maiden trip, an economic class round trip fare is 800 yuan (US$116), and a business seat is 8,000 yuan. Fares will be priced at 1,500 and 12,400 yuan, respectively during the promotion period between June 2 and July 9 (tax not included).

It will be the first intercontinental route to open at the Shenzhen airport this year.

According to the plan, which has been approved by the civil aviation administration, the Shenzhen airport will open intercontinental routes between Shenzhen and London, Moscow, New York, Mexico and Brisbane this year.

If including the international routes to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, which are already open, Shenzhen will be opening at least 10 international routes including the intercontinental routes this year.

The other international routes include routes from Shenzhen to Kalibo in the Philippines, and Sapporo in Japan.

The airport is trying to open the route to Moscow before September in time for the opening of Shenzhen-Beijing Institute of Technology and Moscow University in September.

In the first quarter, Shenzhen airport saw 11.07 million passengers, an increase of 8.2 percent over the same period last year. The airport handled 853,000 international passengers in the first quarter, an increase of 29 percent year on year, and much higher than the 6.6 percent increase in domestic passenger turnover.