Next week an estimated 6 million Chinese will head overseas to celebrate the Lunar New Year according to Bloomberg.
One company which looks set to profit from this mass exodus is Australia's flag carrier airline Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN).
Today sees the launch of its daily service between Sydney and Beijing, just in time for the week-long holiday.
The new service equates to an 18% increase in Qantas' total capacity into Greater China and a 7% increase in its total capacity into Asia.
I believe the launch of the service is a great move by Qantas. As well as the Lunar New Year holiday boost, this service should allow it to take advantage of the significant growth of the Australia-China travel market moving forward.
All in all I feel this is yet another reason why Qantas could make a good investment today. Just as long as oil prices stay in or around current levels.
Despite the amazing work that CEO Alan Joyce has done to cut costs, the airline is still reliant on oil prices remaining favourable.
Thankfully the OPEC production cut hasn't had a huge impact on prices thus far. At present the spot Brent price is US$55.32 a barrel, no higher than its peak in 2016.
But should prices edge above US$60 a barrel, I'd start to be a little concerned about the impact it could have on its margins.
For now though I think Qantas looks like a good addition to investors' portfolios and I would choose it ahead of Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd (ASX: VAH), AIR N.Z. FPO NZ (ASX: AIZ), and Regional Express Holdings Ltd (ASX: REX).
