China Southern Airlines may not be as familiar to most Americans as certain Europeans airlines, like Air France or KLM, but this Chinese air giant is a Top 10 airline. It is arguably the biggest airline Asia and poised to get even bigger.
China Southern Airlines is the world's 7th largest airline and the biggest in Asia in terms of both fleet size and number of passengers carried. This is due, in large part, to its role in Chinese air traffic: it is China's largest domestic carrier. It has a total of 121 route destinations.
As China's top domestic carrier, the list of airports serviced by China Southern Airlines is exhaustive. Its hubs are Guangzhou and Beijing Capital International Airport. Among the most important domestic destinations are Bao'an, Changchun, Dalian, Hong Kong, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Tianhe, Wuhan, Xinzheng, and Zhengzhou.
China Southern Airlines has flights to all the capitals of Central Asia. In East Asia they fly to Taipei, all the major airports of Japan and South Korea. South Asian destinations are limited to New Dehli, Kathmandu, and Islamabad. In Southeast Asia, they fly to all the capitals, plus most of the other airports of note. In the Middle East they fly to Tehran, Jeddah, and Dubai. European destinations include Paris, London, Amsterdam, Moscow, and a handful of Far Eastern Russian cities. The ChNorth American destinations are Anchorage, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angelese, Newark, and Vancouver. They also fly to Melbourne and Sydney.
The airline's core aircraft are Airbus A320 and A321, and the Boeing 737. They also operate other Airbus and Boeing aircraft, as well as some McDonnell Douglas MD-90s. In 2008 they operated almost 300 aircraft and had another 163 on order.
China Southern Airlines is headquartered in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. The airline's majority owner is China Southern Air Holding, with just over half of all shares. Private interests from Hong Kong and outside China account for roughly quarter of the remaining ownership, and private Chinese investors for the remaining quarter. The airline began operations in 1989, and overtook Japanese airlines ANA and JA to become Asia's largest carrier in terms of volume in 2007. At that time, the airline had 34,417 employees.The company's stock is traded in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and on the New York Stock Exchange.
