China Southern announces North American expansion plans

China Southern Airlines, China's largest airline by fleet size and passengers carried, officially announced the airline will accelerate the pace of its expansion in the North American market at the Zhuhai Airshow on Nov. 11.
 
The Guangzhou-based carrier will open thrice-weekly Guangzhou-Wuhan-San Francisco route on Dec. 16, with plans to launch four-time-weekly non-stop Guangzhou-San Francisco route in mid-2015 and increase the frequency of Guangzhou-New York route to daily.

The capacity expansion will bring the airline's North American destinations to four and its North American flights to 28 round-trips per week, together with its existing Guangzhou-Los Angeles and Guangzhou-Vancouver routes.

North America is the world's largest and most mature air travel market, while China is the most potential and fastest growing one. In recent years, the political, economic and cultural exchanges between China and the U.S. are getting frequent as the Chinese economy continues to develop and the North American economy begins recovering.

According to IATA statistics, the Sino-U.S. market has maintained a rapid growth in passenger numbers and market share in recent years. The yearly growth rate averaged 17.6% in the five years between 2008 and 2012. A total of 17 Chinese and American airlines transported 4.4 million passengers and nearly 150,000 tonnes of cargo in 2013.

As early as 1997, China Southern began flying to North America with the service between Guangzhou and Los Angeles. China Southern launched Guangzhou-Vancouver route in Jun. 2011, setting up an important air bridge between Canada and South China. After launching Guangzhou-New York route in Aug.,

China Southern's route network covers both the U.S. East Coast and West Coast for the first time. Meanwhile, China Southern puts the most advanced Airbus A380, Boeing 787 and 777-300ER aircraft on Los Angeles, Vancouver and New York routes, making efforts to enhance the influence in North America with the flagship aircraft brand effect.

China Southern 787-8 (34926/93) B-2732 arrives at London-Heathrow (LHR/EGLL) on September 20, 2013.

(Photo by David Apps)

China Southern will deploy the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on its San Francisco service to be opened next month, which will further improve its route network from South China to North America and enrich its North American products.

Upon arriving at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), passengers can easily transfer to other U.S. cities by air or ground transportation. With the current Guangzhou-Los Angeles route, China Southern will provide more choices for travelers to the U.S. West Coast.

On Nov. 10, the U.S. President Obama said that the U.S. and China have agreed a new visa plan to extend Chinese student visas from the current one year to five years and business and tourist visas to 10 years.

China Southern officially launched visa-free service on the Vancouver route on Nov. 5, allowing passengers from China, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan and Philippines with a valid U.S. visa and no Canadian visa to travel from Vancouver to the U.S. cities by taking the flights of China Southern's partner airlines.

With the introduction of more and more supporting policies and measures, China Southern will also further improve service quality and offer more convenient and comfortable travel experience to the travelers in China and the U.S.

(Coco Sun - WCARN.com)