China Southern, which owns the biggest fleet in China of nearly 600 active aircraft, published its September international flight routes plan on its social media page. It shows some adds and cuts compared to the plan in August.

European routes

The most highlighted add will be the resumption of scheduled flights between China and the United Kingdom. Four Chinese airliners, including China Southern, announced their plan to restart direct flights from China to the UK after both countries reached an agreement earlier this month.

On August 17th, China Southern CZ303 took off at its base, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN), and arrived at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) after 12 hours flight. It was the first China-UK direct scheduled passenger flight since March 2020.

The flights are now carried out every Wednesday. However, all Chinese airlines currently are not selling their return tickets when they fly back to China from the UK.

China Southerns 787
Photo: China Southern
 

There are four other European routes for China Southern, and the Wuhan to Istanbul route and Shenzhen to Moscow route were resumed earlier this summer.

Guangzhou – Amsterdam, Netherlands

CZ307/8

Every Friday

Guangzhou – Paris, France

CZ347/8

Every Thursday

Wuhan – Istanbul, Türkiye

CZ8021/2

Every Wednesday

Resumed on June 29th

Shenzhen – Moscow, Russia

CZ8371/2

Every Thursday

Resumed on July 14th

North American and Oceanian routes

China Southern has kept its routes from China to North America and Oceania stable since it canceled its Guangzhou to Melbourne route at the beginning of this year.

Now China Southern is operating four scheduled passenger routes in the area.

North America

Guangzhou - Los Angeles, U.S.

CZ327/8

Twice a week

Guangzhou – Toronto, Canada

CZ311/2

Weekly

Oceania

Guangzhou – Sydney, Australia

CZ325/6

Weekly

Guangzhou – Auckland, New Zealand

CZ305/6

Twice a week

Southeast Asia and South Asia

Flights to Southeast Asia and South Asia account for the largest share of China Southern's international routes.

China Southern, based in the largest regional central city in Southern China, now keeps its direct flights to 9 out of all 10 ASEAN countries (Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia) in Southeast Asia except Brunei.

Thomas-Boon-China Southern (1)
Relations between China and Iran are improving. Photo: Thomas Boon

For the South Asia region, there is no sign of resumption of direct flight to India yet since it stopped in November 2020. However, China Southern kept the direct flight to the other two major countries, Pakistan and Bangladesh, for the past year.

Discover more aviation news.

Central Asia

After resuming scheduled flights between Shenzhen and Dubai last month, China Southern will also resume flights between Guangzhou and Dubai.

As the northwestern air hub connecting the Central Asian republics, Urumqi, Xinjiang is the base of China Southern in Northwestern China. China Southern planned two flights for four routes from Urumqi to Almaty, Kazakhstan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in August. However, in the plan for September, the former three routes become scheduled for the weekly route, while Tashkent is no longer on the plan list.

GettyImages-930630358-1
Photo: Getty Images

Korea and Japan

The routes from Guangzhou to Seoul and Tokyo have been stable for the past year. However, the route from China Southern's northeastern hub, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, to Seoul and Tokyo is not. The Shenyang to Seoul route restarted on August 18th after it's been "meltdown" in April under the CAAC rule for COVID prevention.

Africa

China Southern now operates only one scheduled route between China and Africa, from Changsha, Hunan Province, and Nairobi, Kenya.

Have you ever flown an international flight on China Southern during the pandemic? Please share your thoughts and experience with us.