Going global from Guangzhou

by CHIEF CORRESPONDENT, TOM BALLANTYNE  

September 1st 2015

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China Southern Airlines (CSA) is a perfect example of the rise of China’s airlines on the world stage. Read More » Speaking in Sydney last month, the carrier’s sales division senior vice president, Li Dongliang, said the company went through a strategic transformation in 2009 when it was facing fierce competition on primary domestic routes from high speed rail.

“At the time, the international percentage of our flights was just 20%. After some deliberate thinking, we concluded that if we wanted a brighter future, CSA must change its strategy. In 2009, our company began to transform itself from being domestic orientated to international orientated,” Li said. “Our aim is to go global and to have Guangzhou airport as a world class hub.”

Now operating a fleet of more than 600 planes, the transformation has been dramatic. CSA has 64 overseas offices around the world. With 14 million safe flying hours behind it, the Guanghzou-headquartered airline was the first Chinese carrier to operate both the A380 and the B787. It carried more than 100 million passengers last year. In the first half of this year, CSA transfer passengers on international flights accounted for nearly 40% of the airline’s business.

Li said his airline had used the Australasian market to test its new strategy. The airline operated seven flights a week to Australia in 2009, but it now operates 43 and has plans to increase services into Australia to 60 a week in the next few years.

From this base, the carrier expanded into Europe, creating a new “Silk Route”, which linked Australasia through Guangzhou to the European cities of London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and St. Petersburg. In the U.S., CSA has gone from operating a daily flight to Los Angeles to services to New York, San Francisco and Vancouver. The carrier commenced flying to Nairobi last month.