China Southern Airlines on Monday launched its first flight between Beijing and Macau and said it plans to add 17 international routes, in a sign it expects a pick-up in international travel this year.
The airline said at an event in Beijing the routes would be
launched in the coming months before Oct. 26. The new routes would include
Amsterdam, London, Doha, Riyadh and Tehran, executives from the airline said.
Macau, a special administrative region of China, is a
popular tourist spot and the world's biggest gambling hub.
China's international airline industry has recovered only
slowly following the lifting of pandemic restrictions in early 2023, struggling
to match gains in domestic travel as consumers remain price-sensitive in a
sluggish economy.
China Southern's international route network has to date
recovered to 80% of 2019 levels, and the airline hopes the new routes will help
take it to 85% by the end of this year, Chen Ling, a deputy manager in China
Southern's north China marketing department, told reporters.
China Southern, one of China's three state carriers, last
Wednesday reported an annual loss of 4.1 billion yuan, which it attributed to
weak consumer spending power, jet fuel costs, supply chain problems and the
depreciation of the yuan.
Hopes are high however that international travel out of
China can turn a corner this year.
China's aviation regulator said in January it expected the
number of international flights to and from the country to reach 6,000 per week
by the end of this year, or about 80% of pre-COVID levels. -Reuters.