Qantas’ first Melbourne – Tokyo Narita service has taken off, with daily flights catering for strong demand for capacity between Australia and Japan.

The Airbus A330-300 route adds to other recently launched services to Japan such as Sydney – Tokyo Haneda and Brisbane – Tokyo Narita.

Flight number QF79 departs Melbourne at 09.15h and QF80 leaves Narita at 19.00h.

Qantas International chief executive officer, Gareth Evans says: “With a new Free Trade Agreement in place, there’s tremendous potential to build on the fantastic growth we’ve already seen in this market, and we want the Qantas Group to lead the way in making it happen.”

The Melbourne – Tokyo route is the eight international service from the state capital of Victoria, following Christchurch on 4 December, and Qantas will replace Boeing 747s with 787-9 Dreamliners on Melbourne – Los Angeles flights from 15 December 2017.