Australia and China agree to open skies aviation agreement

Australia and China reached (04-Dec-2016) settled arrangements for an open aviation market between the two countries. Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester and Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Steven Ciobo said the "historic arrangement paves the way to further strengthen the bilateral relationship and offers boundless opportunities for Australian tourism and trade". Mr Chester said the new arrangements will "remove all capacity restrictions between Australia and China for each country's airline which is an important enabler for increased trade and tourism", as well as liberalising traffic rights and codeshare arrangements, "which are important for Australian airlines". China is Australia's fastest growing and highest spending international visitor market, with more than one million Chinese tourists visiting Australia in 2015-16, up 22.3% year-on-year. [more - original PR]