China Southern Airlines, a leading airline company in China, yesterday announced it will launch 10 international direct routes that depart from Guangzhou within the year.
The routes to be launched will connect Guangzhou with Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Sendai and Sapporo in Japan, Kathmandu in Nepal, Delhi in India, Siem Reap in Cambodia, Phuket in Thailand, Yangon in Myanmar and Vientiane in Laos in Asia, as well as Luanda in Angola in Africa.
"It is the first time for China Southern to launch so many international routes within a year," said China Southern general manager Si Xianmin. "The new routes will be strategically important for our company to become an airline company with very dense international flights."
China Southern will also increase international routes starting from other cities in China this year.
According to Si, the new routes will help to fortify China Southern's position as a Chinese airline company with the densest airline network in Asia as well as China's only company operating direct flights to African countries.
Late last year, China Southern operated a flight to Lagos in Nigeria via the stopover of Dubai, which marked the only airline to Africa from the mainland.
China Southern has operated 82 international routes from Guangzhou as well as other cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Urumqi, Dalian, Shenyang, Harbin, Changchun, Guilin and Shantou.
After the planned expansion, it will have 182 international flights from Guangzhou per week as compared to 136 at present.
Si said the company will put into operation another 68 aircraft this year, and its total number will reach 440 by the year 2010.
"China Southern will officially join the Skyteam, a key global airline alliance, later this year," he said. "That is equal to say that our passengers can get access to over 16,000 international flights offered by its 11 members."
(China Daily February 14, 2007)