Virgin Australia will launch a non-stop flight between Melbourne and Hong Kong on July 5, 2017.

The new five-weekly flight will be operated with an Airbus A330-200, which has a belly cargo capacity of approximately 14 tonnes.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo will be in charge of selling the capacity on the route, as part of its long-haul international sales contract with Virgin Australia.

“This is great news for our customers because it really opens up the Australia-Hong Kong-Australia market in addition to the services we already offer with Virgin Australia that connect Australia and the US West Coast,” said John Lloyd, managing director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo. “Hong Kong is an important and growing market for companies in Australia, with over 21.5m kilos of air cargo moving from Melbourne to Hong Kong alone in 2016. We are confident of winning a good share of this business and also see great potential to grow volumes into Melbourne from Hong Kong and London.”

Virgin Australia expects the flight to carry general cargo, perishables and e-commerce shipments.

“We expect a good level of growth this year with the addition of our new routes from Melbourne to Los Angeles and Hong Kong,” said Merren McArthur, chief executive of Virgin Australia Cargo. “We have great confidence in Virgin Atlantic’s ability to maximise the potential of our growing long-haul international network.”

Virgin Atlantic has been responsible for all cargo revenues on Virgin Australia’s long-haul international flights since 2009, including its flights connecting Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney with Los Angeles.