China Southern Airlines, a SkyTeam member partly owned by oneworld’s American Airlines, is seeking to further its partnership with the US carrier to help it increase its presence in the transpacific market.
Global airlines carried 3.8 billion passengers on scheduled services last year, an increase of 7 percent on the previous 12 months, representing an additional 242 million air trips.
Under the new Air Service Agreement passenger flights can now increase from the current maximum of 40 per week for each nation to up to 100. There will be no limit on the number of all-cargo services, creating new opportunities for trade and businesses. A restriction on the number of destinations that airlines can serve has also been lifted, meaning services can be operated between any point in the UK and any point in China. Up until now, airlines could only serve six destinations in each country.
As World Routes returns to mainland China, Routesonline is providing a snapshot on the leading international airlines and international airports and most used aircraft types on international flights from the country and highlights the country's top performers during the first half of 2016.
China Southern announced in August that it would commence a three times weekly link between Guangzhou and Christchurch from December 15, 2015 operated using a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. This was originally displaying just for the winter schedule, but last month reservations were opened for the route to continue through the summer 2016 schedule.
Under the alliance Air New Zealand will continue to operate daily between Auckland and Shanghai, while Air China will operate this new service between Auckland and Beijing from December 10, 2015, bossting air capacity between Auckland and Mainland China by more than 25 per cent year round.
According to Andrew Harrison, London Stansted Airport’s managing director, the new route will give the UK and businesses in the eastern region in particular, new direct access to Chinese markets and its launch represents the culmination of several years of working with the airline and their partners to deliver the new service.
China Southern has previously revealed its intent to serve the European market with the 506-seat airliner but has faced opposition flying the jet out of Beijing due to regulatory procedures that prevent China’s big three state-owned carriers from competing with one another directly.
Every month Routesonline provides an update on the current schedules of five latest aircraft programmes, highlighting the routes the types are being deployed upon.
In partnership with our Airline Route blog, Routesonline is launching a new weekly 'Historic Airline Schedule Snapshot' as part of our Throwback Thursday series, where we look back at the historic flight operations of a current or defunct airline.
Every month Routesonline provides an update on the current schedules of five latest aircraft programmes, highlighting the routes the types are being deployed upon.
Every month Routesonline provides an update on the current schedules of five latest aircraft programmes, highlighting the routes the types are being deployed upon.
Under the revised air services agreement, both countries’ carriers will immediately be able to operate 26,500 seats a week between Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to the major gateway cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – an increase of 18 percent on the routes.
We took a look at the top 20 airlines in the world by operating carrier, analysing the network capacity in December 2013 against the same month this year.
