China Southern Airlines Launches New China/Japan Service; 1st Direct Service Between Guangzhou/Fukuoka In Two Decades

China Southern Airlines (NYSE: ZNH) (HKSE: 1055), the largest airline in The people's Republic of China, has launched a new direct international service - every Thursday - between its worldwide hub at Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou to Fukuoka, Japan.

The new service marks the first direct, point-to-point service between the two cities in nearly 20 years.

"This direct service is an important new 'air bridge' and linkage between our two great sister cities," said Mr. Li Kun, Vice President, China Southern Airlines at the recent inauguration of the direct China/Japan air service.

For the past three years, China's largest airline has offered one-stop service from Guilin (in South West China) to Fukuoka with a stop in Wuhan.

Additionally, for the past five years, China Southern Airlines has offered direct service between Guangzhou and Osaka - now operating with its code-share partner Japan Air System.

Since opening its Guilin-Fukuoka service in 1998, China Southern Airlines has seen increasing passenger loads as it provides a convenient air route for Japanese business and leisure traffic to Southern China.

Fukuoka, a coastal city of Kyushu in Southern Japan, enjoys a long history of economic and cultural ties with Guangzhou. In May 1979, Fukuoka and Guangzhou established "sister" city marketing and cultural bonds.

"However," according to China Southern's VP Li Kun, "due to the absent of point-to-point service for the last two decades, all passengers and cargo traffic between Guangzhou and Fukuoka had to come and go via alternative destinations such as Hong Kong."

Mr. Li explained that, "After extensive market research, China Southern Airlines found that there were many people traveling between Fukuoka and Guangzhou on business and many Japanese tourists coming to Guangzhou who had to commute between both points via alternative cities such as Kunming, Hainan, Vietnam or even Cambodia."

More importantly, there are increasing numbers of people from the Pearl River Delta area going to Japan for business and leisure. Previously our customers had the hassle of transiting from these diverse locations just to get to Fukuoka. Our goal with this new direct service is to promote the mutual business and cultural ties between the two 'sisters'. China Southern Airlines has adjusted its route schedule to launch this important international service to provide passengers with more convenience and choices and we may elect to expand this service in the future if traffic patterns warrant."

China Southern Airlines will operate this service each Thursday morning using Airbus A320 aircraft, with flight numbers CZ335/336, departing from Guangzhou at 8:45 a.m. (Beijing Time), arriving at 12:30 p.m. in Fukuoka and returning same-day back to Guangzhou at 15:30 p.m. (Beijing Time.)

Also attending the inaugural ceremony at Baiyun International Airport were Mr. Makoto Takahashi, General Manager, Japan Air System's China Region and Guangzhou Office and Mr. Fang Xiaoming, Director General, Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office.