Qantas Group has announced that it would be providing service to Beijing through its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar. The new service which will link Beijing to Melbourne via Singapore is another move to capture as much of the growing Melbourne-Beijing tourism market.

Jetstar latest announcement comes in the wake of previous expansion efforts which marked its seventh mainland China destination with a four times weekly service to the industrial city of Ningbo, about 280 km south of Shanghai. The new Beijing to Melbourne service will be daily starting in November at a standard fare of $499 one-way economy.

China's growing importance in the tourism and aviation market has pushed airlines to aggressively campaign for more of the market share. Qantas sees China as its biggest market in the future and could overtake Japan as a major destination in the next ten years.

Qantas efforts in China have been thwarted by the low cost base of the Chinese airlines. Rising costs forced Qantas to cut back on its Chinese services leaving only Shanghai to Sydney as its only route. Jetstar could be the company's low-cost carrier to be able to compete with Chinese airlines.

Jetstar has been busily cornering the market with flights to secondary cities like Haikou, Shantou, Guilin and Hangzhou from its Singapore hub. It will also add four planes by the end of the year and plans to operate to 12 destinations in the Chinese region by the end of next year. With the Beijing to Melbourne service, Jetstar plans to match the Air China rates with a special sale with just $149 one-way tickets

According to Jetstar's chief commercial officer David Koczkar, Jetstar is ready for the intense completion with Chinese airlines.

"We won't be beaten on price, we're very committed to offering guaranteed lowest fares," he said. "I'm not too concerned with what they (Air China) do, we know we can sustain our every-day low fares."

Air China and Jetstar are both flying Airbus A330s on the Beijing route. Air China is putting forth its newly outfitted executive class featuring a 180-degree flat bed seats for overnight flights to the Jetstar competition.

"We compete on service as much as price," a spokesman for Air China said.

Air China's service stops in Shanghai while Jetstar's will go via Singapore.