JUNEYAO AIR: Inaugural flight arrival to Sydney from Shanghai

The inaugural flight HO1669 by Juneyao Air between Shanghai and Sydney on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner arrived yesterday, 17 December 2024.

This is the first of four direct services per week between Sydney and Shanghai. During the Lunar New Year period, 2025 will see this number rise to daily flights.

The advent of Juneyao Air’s flights to and from Sydney will push seat capacity to mainland China to 53,000 weekly seats.

Juneyao flight schedule

The four services a week run on Tuesdays, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Not all prices have been loaded, or are accessible to Google Flights at the moment. Even the Juneyao website itself does not list Australia yet. Sydney services are set out below.

• HO1670 departs Sydney 08:35, arrives Shanghai 16:00
• HO1669 departs Shanghai 17:30, arrives Sydney 06:30

The airline is also launching Melbourne-Shanghai services this week.

Flights between China and Australia

This is the ninth Chinese mainland carrier to service Sydney Airport. Juneyao Air will bring the capacity between Sydney and China to over 100% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

“Juneyao Air’s decision to launch the Shanghai-Sydney route with four flights per week is a testament to the strong and growing relationship between Sydney and Shanghai.

“China is one of Sydney Airport’s most important markets – our third largest – and Shanghai is the leading gateway within that market, so we’re excited about the opportunities this will bring for the airport and our passengers.

Scott Charlton, CEO of Sydney Airport

From his statement of thanks to the NSW Government and Destination NSW, take it as read that some subsidies have been offered from the state’s Aviation Attraction Fund. Modern realities mean governments need to spend to win the reputed 450 jobs and AU$80 million of ‘new expenditure’ each year.

Benefits on Juneyao Air

This new service will predominantly benefit travellers between Australia and China by making the market more competitive.

There are now eight Chinese carriers operating to Australia. These include:

• Air China
• Beijing Capital Airlines
• China Eastern Airlines
• China Southern Airlines
• Hainan Airlines
• Juneyao Air
• Sichuan Airlines
• Tianjin Airlines
• Xiamen Airlines

However, Australian airlines no longer provide services. Qantas cancelled the revival of its routes to mainland China citing weak demand caused by China’s slower recovery from COVID restrictions and a scarcity of aircraft.

China did not reopen its borders until 2023. Back in 2019, over 1.8 million passengers travelled between Sydney and China. Half a million of those were to and from the Shanghai hub, including those flown by Qantas.

Juneyao Air

Headquartered in Shanghai, Juneyao Air was founded in 2006. It flies to around 200 destinations across Asia and Indonesia and now to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia.

It has a fleet of around 99 aircraft. Predominantly Airbus models (A320-200, A320neo, A321-200 and A321 neo’s) but with 8 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and another five options to buy.

The airline is a connecting partner with Star Alliance, which gives Gold members various privileges, including priority boarding, check-in and additional baggage allowances. Frequent Flyer Members of ANA, Air Canada, Air China, EVA Air, Singapore Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and United can also earn and burn miles when travelling on Juneyao Air. Juneyao also has agreements with Finnair for the Helsinki-Shanghai route.

2PAXfly Takeout

It’s great to have another service added between Australia and China. However, Juneyao Air’s reviews on the Internet are not great.

I would definitely have a look through reviews on Skytrax Airline Quality and Tripadvisor before booking. A few too many ‘1’s for my liking. It seems like customer service lets them down.

With cheap prices and the Chinese Visa Waiver for Australians, this could be a tempting trip, especially since Shanghai is one dynamic city.

But as the age old adage says, ‘You get what you pay for.’ And Junyao fares seem to be cheap, cheap, cheap.