Qantas to drop Sydney-Beijing route due to competition from Chinese carriers

Qantas Airways said Tuesday it is axing its underperforming Sydney-Beijing route from March due to stiff competition from Chinese airlines and weak business class demand. The carrier had relaunched the route in 2017 in its third attempt in 35 years to make it viable and had already lowered the number of weekly flights to five from seven in 2018. It will maintain daily flights from Sydney to Shanghai, where it partners with hub carrier China Eastern Airlines. Qantas said since it had reintroduced the direct Sydney-Beijing services in 2017, capacity from Beijing to Australia on Chinese airlines had grown by around 20% and was expected to grow even further in 2020 at a time when broader international capacity to Australia was declining. <br/>