SkyTeam alliance member XiamenAir will link Melbourne with Hangzhou, China from December as the airline plans twice-weekly Boeing 787 flights.

Offering both first class and business class ahead of economy, first class passengers aboard the Dreamliner will find a cosy cabin of just four seats spread across a single row, configured in a 1-2-1 layout and transforming into 198cm-long beds when it’s time to snooze…

… while business class finds 18 seats spanning three rows in a 2-2-2 configuration, which also transform into fully-flat beds:

On Thursdays and Sundays from December 17 2017, flight MF814 takes to Melbourne’s skies at 11:35am to reach Hangzhou Airport at 7:05pm.

Out of China, flight MF813 runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays from December 16 2017 as an overnight service, leaving the gate at 8:15pm ahead of a 9:45am touchdown in Melbourne the following morning, with flights now open for booking.

XiamenAir is the only airline to provide non-stop flights between Melbourne and Hangzhou: capital of China’s Zhejiang Province with a population of almost nine million people, just 180km from finance hub Shanghai.

This route joins XiamenAir’s existing Melbourne-Xiamen services and complements the airline’s other Australian flights from Sydney to Fuzhou and Xiamen.

Sydneysiders can also fly non-stop to Hangzhou three times per week with Qantas partner China Eastern Airlines.