This lesser-known Chinese airline is poised to take on the world from buzai232's blog

Anyone booking an economy ticket for China Southern’s new non-stop service to Wuhan would do well to select a seat in the front six rows of the cabin.

So keen is the state-owned airline to attract visitors to the central Chinese city that it's selling its premium economy seats - on which travellers enjoy five inches more leg room - as standard, for the same price as economy. Aim for rows 31-36.上海から長春航空券

Nick Newman, commercial manager at China Southern in the UK, explained that the airline is hoping to establish a market for the route and that the seats are “at the lower end of premium but as an economy seat is amazing”.

China Southern is acting as a loss-leader for the country's tourism industry
China Southern is acting as a loss-leader for the country's tourism industry CREDIT: CHINA SOUTHERN
The decision is in keeping with an airline that, though the fourth largest in the world by passengers carried (126 million in 2017) and the biggest in Asia, is relatively unknown on British shores. Currently only flying to Guangzhou, one of the world’s fastest growing cities, from London Heathrow, but launching a non-stop service to Wuhan at the end of May, and Sanya later in the year, China Southern is looking to expand its reach into the UK and Europe.

The London-Wuhan route will fly three times a week on one of the carrier’s Airbus A330s.It is no secret that the rise of Chinese travellers is fuelling a boom in air travel in and around Asia - the number of overseas trips made by Chinese residents grew 1,380 per cent from 2000 to 2017 - but Newman says China Southern is also seeing an increase in the number of western and British holidaymakers flying to China.

“In 2013/14 the flight to Guangzhou might be 75 per cent Chinese passport holders,” he said. “In 2017 this was down to 51 per cent, so it’s about 50:50 now.”