From December, Air China will introduce a new direct route between Beijing and Melbourne making it the sole carrier to offer the direct service.

Air China is introducing the new route as part of a greater plan to operate daily flights between China and Melbourne. The airline currently operates four services per week between Melbourne and China.

Air China will operate the new twice-weekly service between Beijing and Melbourne from December as well as increasing the frequency of its Beijing-Shanghai Pudong-Melbourne service to five flights per week from October.

The Air China announcement comes on the back of a spate of additional services to be offered between Asia and Melbourne including China Southern Airlines' recent announcement to increase the frequency of its service between Melbourne and Guangzhou to daily operations from October.

Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff said the extra services would provide further opportunities for even greater increases in business and leisure travel between Victoria and China.

Mr Woodruff said the Chinese market grew 8.6 percent over the last calendar year. He said the introduction of further services between Australia and Asia would increase this growth with an extra 78,000 seats to and from Melbourne.

Melbourne Airport has worked closely with airlines and service providers to create a Chinese Visitors Program upon their arrival in Melbourne.

"We are going the extra mile to make sure our Chinese visitors feel welcome and respected on their arrival into Melbourne through Mandarin public address messages, Chinese signage both in arrivals and departures, cultural training for staff and a Chinese language section on our website” Mr Woodruff said.

Mr Woodruff said Melbourne Airport had the advantage of a lack of curfew and 24 hour operations and its single terminal precinct meant better connection times for passengers. ■