China Southern Airlines has pledged to “spare no effort” in developing the ‘Canton route’ with the carrier revealing it will operate Boeing 787 Dreamliners between Australia and London.
Speaking last night at the opening of the carrier’s regional headquarters in Sydney, president and chief executive Tan Wangeng said China Southern’s rapid growth of recent years will continue.
It carried 580,000 passengers between Australia and China in 2011, a rise of 315% on 2009, he said.
“Guangzhou where China Southern Airlines is headquartered, is in the best geographical location in China to operate air routes to Australia,” Tan told the industry. “So we view Australia as the most important overseas market and have come up with a very clear and long term Australia strategy.”
He continued: “We will spare no effort in building the Canton Route into a premium product, using new Airbus A330 superjumbo and Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, hiring Australian staff including 24 flight attendants and we have established a local call centre to better serve Australian passengers.”
He did not elaborate on when or exactly what sectors the aircraft will operate on and speculation remains that it may use A380s on the route.
Tan said the route will be further developed from October with its existing three times weekly frequency from Guangzhou to London, which began in June, rising to daily services.
The increase will be welcomed particularly by business travellers who want the flexibility of daily flights.
Tan said 30% of passengers on the route are Australian or European which has demonstrated how Australians have “warmly embraced” the product.
He added that the carrier’s 42 weekly flights to Australasia is six times the number three years ago.
