Qantas will offer couples more chances to visit the oriental delights of China with the launch of daily flights between Sydney and Beijing starting 25 January 2017.

The new service will operate into Beijing Capital International Airport, using an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, with return flights timed to connect with Qantas’ extensive domestic and trans-Tasman network.

Last flying direct in 2009, it marks Qantas’ return to the route, its third destination in Greater China, including its existing daily return services to Shanghai and 28 return services a week to Hong Kong.

The new Beijing-Sydney service is part of the expansion of Qantas’ joint venture partnership with China Eastern which will also see three international codeshare routes between Australia and China being added under their strengthened agreement: Sydney-Hangzhou, Sydney-Kunming and Brisbane-Shanghai. China Eastern will codeshare on Qantas’ new Beijing service.

Qantas has seen strong loads on its existing Shanghai and Hong Kong services, and the new Beijing route will take advantage of China Eastern marketing the Qantas flight as part of their own network.

This growth is part of the Qantas Group’s broader focus on Asia, with around 50 percent of Qantas’ and Jetstar’s international capacity now dedicated to the region, compared with 30 percent 10 years ago. Over the past 12 months, Qantas has added flights to Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia to meet growing demand in the region.

Including codeshare services with China Eastern and China Southern, Qantas offers more than 130 return services a week between Australia and China, connecting to a further 256 codeshare services a week on intra-China domestic routes. Jetstar Group airlines offer 20 return services a week into six Chinese cities from Singapore and Vietnam.