China Southern Offers Frequent Flyers A Pearly Deal
<B> China Southern Offers Frequent Flyers A Pearly Deal</B>
By Judy Jacobs
China Southern Airlines--the largest carrier in the People's Republic of China--has created a new frequent flyer program called Sky Pearl Club. With the new program in palce, the airline hopes to attract more business travelers flying to southern China.
The Sky Pearl Club works on a voucher system and travelers can apply to be members when checking in on their first China Southern flight. After flying a total of 12,420 miles (20,000 kilometers), members will begin receiving vouchers that are good for one year that can be applied toward free travel and upgrades.
The program comes on the heels of the airline's introduction of a new Premium Business Class onboard its B777 aircraft. The seats in the Premium Business Class, which China Southern promotes as "first class service and comfort at business class fares," have a 60-inch pitch, headrest with cushioned side wings, personal video monitor and satellite telephone.
Although China now has more than 30 airlines, China Southern boasted the most passengers in 1997--some 15.2 million. "The airline carried between one-fourth and one-third of all airline passengers in China that year," said Wan Chuan Xiao, senior adviser to the carrier in Guangzhou.
China Southern and its 10 subsidiaries have a total of 94 aircraft in the fleet, which includes B777s, B767s, B757s, B737s and A320s, he said. It flies to 67 domestic and 17 international destinations, with some 300 flights per day.
The carrier flies between Los Angeles and Guangzhou three times per week.
Meanwhile, Guangzhou International Airport, the airport that serves as the carrier's base, will be replaced by a new facility being built on a site 16 miles north of the city and scheduled to open in the first half of 2001.
"The current Guangzhou Airport is not big enough to handle traffic demand, and it's too close to the city, so we can't build skyscrapers around that area and develop it," said Liang Guo Wei of the Guangzhou Tourism Bureau. "The new airport will be able to process up to 50 million passengers per year." The current facility can handle only 10 million passengers.