CHINA Southern Airlines will strengthen its presence at the Shenzhen market by doubling the number of flights to 50 within five years.

The five to six new planes to be added each year will be mainly A321 air buses to be used on trunk routes to Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities, the airline said in a news release yesterday.

The first new A321 is scheduled to arrive Sunday. It will operate on the route to Shanghai as demand increases for the Shanghai World Expo and because of the booming spring tourism to East China cities.

After Sunday, there will be nine flights a day from Shenzhen to Shanghai, the company said.

The other three planes, to be delivered between April and June, will operate on routes to Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Nanjing, Chongqing and Kunming.

The A321, which can seat 182 passengers, has 12 VIP seats, eight more than the A320.

The expansion was one of the important measures following a strategic cooperation agreement signed between the company, the largest airline company in Asia, and the Shenzhen government in October last year.

The airline's Shenzhen affiliate has 24 planes operating on routes to 70 cities in China.

In another development, Shenzhen Airlines will operate 330 flights a day in the summer and autumn schedule that will start March 28. It will add more international flights to cities in Southeast Asia including Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. It will also open a new route between Fuzhou in Fujian Province and Tokyo in Japan, starting in April.

Source:Shenzhen Daily