China Southern is looking to bring the Airbus A380 onto its Sydney-London service, with the superjumbo flying both legs of the 'Canton Route' from Sydney to Guangzhou and then onwards to London.
The airline's president and CEO Mr Tan Wangeng, said this could be tied to the introduction of a third daily service from Sydney to Guangzhou.
"China Southern does have a plan to use the A380 on the Canton Route" Tan confirmed at a media briefing today.
"On our current Sydney route we operate double daily using our A330 aircraft and the load factor has been very satisfying. We are now investigating the possibility of using the A380 on this route, which means we could be operating a triple daily service. We have to study if the market will be big enough to digest this capacity."
A senior China Southern executive later confirmed to Australian Business Traveller that if introduced onto flights from Australia, the A380 would continue through to London.
As Australian Business Traveller previously reported, China Southern also intends to introduce the Boeing 787 Dreamliner on flights between Sydney and London.
China Southern, which is Asia's largest airline, has three A380s in its fleet and orders for two more, along with 10 Boeing 787s due to begin flying later this year.
"More than 30% of the passengers travelling on (the Canton Route) are from Australia and Europe" Tan noted.
China Southern's Guangzhou-London flights, which form the second leg of the Canton Route from Sydney, currently run three times per week but as of late October will tick up to the daily frequency prized by business travellers.
The move will bring further choice for business travellers bound for London, and further competition for Qantas on its crown jewel Kangaroo Route.
David Flynn is attending China Southern's Canton Route press conference in Guangzhou as a guest of China Southern.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
09 Nov 2011
Total posts 88
More Qantas pain - and the China Southern fares are substantially lower as well. Keep refurbishing those 747's Qantas, you are going to need them to compete with slick new A380's and 787's, not to mention the Emirites, Etihad and SQ offerings. The 777-300ER - see a great deal of them whispering out of Melbourne these days - non with a red roo tail - pity.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 780
Exactly. Strangely enough QF was part of the design consultation team on the B777 project.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Jan 2012
Total posts 172
Hopefully we can see another airlines A380 into Sydney or our first B787.
On the Qantas front and hypothetically....I wonder what QF's cost base and network would have looked like if they had gone down the path of B777 aircraft.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 780
We'd have Jetstar 777s configured similarly to Scoot ...
20 Jul 2011
Total posts 72
Well if nothing else, they'd be servicing an additional $150-200m in capital/leasing costs per piece. You can buy a lot of fuel for that much cash.
23 Aug 2011
Total posts 65
In am really surpised with some of these posts, has anyone contributing to this blog ever travelled CS? I have, and never again! poor service, disappointing selection of food and wines served in business class that I wouldn't have served at an Aussie beach BBQ. On the Mel/Can sector had a pax sitting next to me who like to pick his teeth and spit the items on to the floor! get real they are years away from being a serious threat to QF and by then QF will have their 787 900.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2563
Hi Austline, I flew to Guangzhou with CZ so we'll have a review/report on that business class flight soon.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
Sorry to be a b***h, but CZ really isn't worthy of this much coverage on a site like this. Instead of doing so much talking about how wonderful they are going to be down the track, they should focus on doing something to improve their abysmal offering, then talk about it afterwards.
You'll all send this comment spiralling into the red, but you wouldn't if you'd ever flown them or knew someone who had. They are not an airline that will be a hit with the Australian business market in the same way as SQ, EK or CX have been any time soon...
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on China Southern considers Airbus A380 for Sydney-London