China Southern Air Holding Company Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Southern Group) is headquartered in Guangzhou (also known as Canton), China, with a registered capital of 17.768 billion yuan. By the end of 2022, the group had more than 110,000 employees and managed assets of nearly 336.3 billion yuan.
As of Dec 31st, 2022, China Southern Group has had 9 wholly owned companies, 4 holding subsidiaries and 18 shareholding companies. Among them, China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Southern), specializing in air transportation services, has 7 aviation subsidiaries including Xiamen Airlines and Henan Airlines, 18 branches, 21 domestic offices and 53 overseas offices.
China Southern Group radiates its distinctive cultural character of “Sunshine China Southern” and its mission continues to be “Connecting the World to Create a Better Life”. With “Customer, Staff, Advantage, Innovation, Return” as its core values and “Diligent, Practical, Inclusive, Innovative” as its corporate spirit, China Southern Group is dedicated to fulfilling its vision of “Building a World-class Airline with Global Competitiveness”.
Fleet & Route Network
China Southern carried 62.64 million passengers in 2022, leading all Chinese carriers for 44 consecutive years, with the highest annual number in history being 152 million. It’s among the top 10 globally in terms of cargo and mail volume (Source: IATA). As of December 2022, China Southern had a fleet of more than 890 passenger and cargo aircraft, including the Boeing 787, 777 and 737, the Airbus 350, 330 and 320, and the COMAC ARJ21.
Currently, China Southern operates an extensive route network of more than 1,000 routes with around 3,000 daily flights to over 200 destinations in more than 40 countries and regions around the world, offering over 500,000 seats. Through close cooperation with its global airline partners including American Airlines, British Airways, Qatar Airways, and Vietnam Airlines, China Southern continues to extend its route network to more destinations around the world. China Southern has actively responded to and provided strong support for the “Belt and Road Initiative” and in its key regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, South Pacific and Central and West Asia through its well-established route network. This decisive leadership position among all Chinese carriers in terms of the number of flights, flight frequencies and market share, makes China Southern a major force in building air connectivity between China and countries and regions along the “Belt and Road”.
In recent years, China Southern has been fully dedicated to building its comprehensive Guangzhou-Beijing “dual hubs”. At the airline’s home base located at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, China Southern has been making remarkable progress over the past decade in developing its “Canton Route” family of travel products to serve the many nations located along the “Belt and Road” as well as the sprawling Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Guangzhou has become the No. 1 gateway hub from China’s mainland to Australasia and Southeast Asia, forming a “4-hour air traffic circle” with major cities in China and Southeast Asia, and a “12-hour air traffic circle” with major international destinations. In 2018, all China Southern flights to/from Guangzhou were relocated to the Terminal 2 of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, where China Southern has operated nearly 870,000 flights, transporting more than 115 million passengers and nearly 60 million pieces of luggage over the past 5 years. The volume of transfer passengers during the same period was around 10.05 million.
As the largest hub carrier at the new Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX), China Southern Group takes up more than 50% of slot resources. In October 2020, all China Southern flights to/from Beijing were relocated to PKX. And China Southern’s self-built aircraft hangar, operation control center and air catering production base - the largest of their kinds in Asia - are already in daily operation. By 2025, China Southern is expected to deploy more than 200 dedicated aircraft to PKX with more than 900 daily aircraft movements. China Southern is committed to working with all parties to build Beijing Daxing International Airport into a new world-class aviation hub as well as a convenient and efficient gateway of China.
Enterprise Strength
China Southern holds a leading position both at home and abroad in terms of safety record and safety management. In June, 2018, it won the “2-Star Flight Safety Diamond Award”, the top flight safety award in Chinese civil aviation industry, for achieving the highest safety star-level in China. In 2021, it received a safety rating of 7/7 from AirlineRatings.com, an independent international aviation rating agency.
China Southern has the capability to train pilots independently with more than 10,000 professional aviators currently in service. Its Zhuhai Xiangyi Simulator Training Centre is one of the largest training centers in Asia with the most extensive range of flight simulator models and the longest history of operation in China. China Southern is also pleased to partner with Germany’s MTU Aero Engines to operate the largest and most advanced aero engine overhaul and maintenance facility in China. China Southern’s self-developed “Flight Operation Control System” and “Engine Performance Monitoring System” were honored with the “Second Prize for National Scientific and Technological Progress”, offering the most state-of-the-art IT systems in the Chinese aviation industry. Boasting the largest Boeing 777 freighter fleet in China’s mainland, China Southern Air Logistics operates 17 Boeing 777 freighters.
China Southern is committed to developing a world-class service brand combining “affinity and refinement” to deliver an exceptional and seamless travel experience to all passengers. China Southern has launched a new membership tier - Sky Pearl Platinum - and fully enhanced its membership program which provides members with a full range of exclusive travel services. As of December 2022, China Southern’s Sky Pearl Club frequent flyer program has more than 89 million members. China Southern’s Nanland Air Catering Center has an annual production capacity of more than 90 million in-flight meals, offering the finest gourmet Cantonese and Western cuisine for every pallet.
As a SKYTRAX 4-Star Airline, China Southern ranked at 12 among “World’s Top 100 Airlines 2021”, leading all the aviation carriers in China, and it was honored “The Best Airline in China” in 2022. In 2017 and 2020, China Southern was honored twice as the national “Customer Satisfaction Benchmark” enterprise by the China Association for Quality and was awarded the AAA certification, the highest quality credit rating in the market. Through its “Green Flight” initiative featuring the “On-Demand Dining” catering service, China Southern has reduced waste of nearly 9.6 million in-flight meals weighing around 2,657 tons, and won the champion award at the first “GoldenKey-SDG Solutions Campaign” championship competition.
Corporate Social Responsibility
China Southern Group faithfully fulfills its corporate social responsibility as a state-owned enterprise which has been widely applauded by all sectors of the society. Taking achieving high-quality development as the main task, China Southern Group continues to embrace reform and innovation and pursue green development, and strives to create economic value, environmental value and comprehensive social value.
Playing an active part in China’s poverty relief campaign, China Southern Group has been awarded the highest rank in the assessment for four consecutive years for its contribution to the fight of Moyu County and Pishan County in Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang Province against poverty. China Southern Group advocates the philosophy of “environmental friendliness, harmony and innovation”, and gradually shapes a new green development model in an all-round manner, with saving energy, reducing carbon emissions, decreasing energy consumption and forming green travel behaviors as main tasks. It leads the industry in terms of green development level. China Southern Group actively participates in the transportation of important materials and personnel, and supports special flights in an all-round way, carrying out 578 important charter flights and transporting more than 69,000 people in 2022. China Southern Group has been selected as a Core Supporting Enterprise and a Designated Air Carrier of the China International Import Expo from 2020 to 2024, a Designated Air Carrier of the China International Consumer Goods Expo from 2021 to 2025, and a strategic partner of the China-ASEAN Expo from 2023 to 2025.
