THE Chinese year of the rabbit is approaching, and the aviation industry in Asia is getting a hop along.
Jetstar will start flying to its seventh Chinese port from March 22, subject to regulatory approval.
Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, about 150 kilometres from Shanghai, is the fourth Chinese port to be added to the network in the past year. The direct flight from Singapore will be carried out on Jetstar Asia A320 aircraft.
Singapore-Auckland services are also due to start on March 17, again subject to regulator's approval.
''We will be focusing on marketing Singapore both as a hub and a destination,'' said the chief executive of Jetstar Group, Bruce Buchanan. The Hangzhou service was part of a strategy ''to further grow our low fare services to China''.
Jetstar's Singapore hub, where two Australian-registered A330s and crew are based, has drawn the ire of an Australian pilots' union which claims staff are employed on lower wages and conditions than their counterparts in Australia.
Jetstar defends its arrangement, citing ''relevance'' to the culture and geography it serves.
Such is the emergence of China's middle class and with Australia a government-approved destination, Hainan Airlines of China also said that from tomorrow it would start A300 flights between Sydney and Shenzhen and Hangzhou three times a week. The service would ''strengthen the relationship between Australia and China in the tourism industry'', the airline said.
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