Qantas lifts Hong Kong capacity

Qantas is increasing capacity on its Sydney-Hong Kong route.

Qantas is increasing capacity on its Sydney-Hong Kong route and will offer twice-daily flights for most of the northern summer, kicking off in April. Between April to May and July to October Qantas will conduct two flights per day between Sydney and Hong Kong. From May to June it will fly twice a day except Fridays.

Qantas flies a mix of Boeing 747 and Airbus A330 aircraft along its Hong Kong route but the additional routes will only use A330s. The airline also flies daily to Hong Kong from Melbourne and Brisbane.

Asia continues to be a strong driver of traffic for Qantas, with visitors to Australia from China growing by 22 per cent in 2015 to reach 1 million, while tourists from Hong Kong grew by 9 per cent to reach 220,000.

Brisbane Airport has been voted the best airport across Australia and the Pacific at the Skytrax World Airport Awards in Cologne, Germany. The airport also ranked fourth in Best Airports in the World — for the category that recognises airports that service 20-30 million passengers — and increased its position to 17th in the world’s top 100 airports list.

In the past five years Brisbane airport has invested heavily upgrading terminals, roads, check-in facilities, aprons and taxiways, as well as rolling out programs to improve on-time performance. Singapore Changi Airport took out the top gong as it was voted the World’s Best Airport by air travellers for the fourth year in a row. The award to Singapore marked the seventh time that Changi Airport had picked up the top title.

The International Air Transport Association has signed a declaration aimed at reducing the illegal trafficking of wildlife. The declaration comes as air transport networks continue to be exploited by criminal gangs to smuggle animals or their products from the killing field to the market place. The air transport industry has decided to clamp down on the illegal activity by providing additional intelligence to enforcement authorities about suspicious shipments.

The initial focus of action will be on the trafficking of high-risk protected animals, specifically certain big cats, pangolins, and ivory products, on high-risk routes, particularly originating from or transiting through East Africa.