China Southern Airlines (CSA) expects passenger traffic of 60
million in 2007, an increase of 22 percent on the previous year,
company sources said Wednesday.
CSA, which is listed on the New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong
stock exchanges, operates China's largest fleet of 307
aircraft.
The passenger traffic of 49 million in 2006 resulted in CSA
being the only Chinese carrier to be listed in the world's top ten
passenger airlines for 2006 by the International Air Transport
Association (IATA).
The source, a senior official with the CSA, attributed the jump
to the dynamic domestic market and CSA's strategic reform.
CSA said in mid-May that the growth of its international routes
outpaced domestic ones in 2006, with passenger traffic volume
surging 13.9 percent year on year, higher than the 11.8 percent
recorded by domestic air routes.
CSA president Liu Shao Yong has just been reappointed as a
member of the IATA, becoming the first ever mainland Chinese
airline chairman to be reappointed.
(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2007)