China Southern Airlines to expand international operations
11 Mar 2008
China Southern Airlines is working on ambitious plans that will shift the carrier's traditional domestic focus towards international operations, chairman Liu Shaoyong said yesterday.
The carrier, which opened 10 new international routes from Guangzhou last year, now plans to open more international routes from Beijing to New York, London and Detroit, and a Guangzhou-Moscow route by 2012, according to Liu.
He also claimed that Southern's cargo business would grow significantly, "almost threefold in the next few years."
Liu said that Southern will have exclusive use of the new domestic cargo station at Guangzhou Baiyun once it was ready. The carrier also plans to reconfigure its first A300-600 into a freighter that will then go into operation this year.
Southern is also negotiating a cargo JV with Air France. It signed a memorandum in January this year to sell a 20 per cent stake in its Nanlian Air Catering Co to Air France subsidiary Servair.
