China Southern to finally commence long-haul A380 services, but operation still faces challenges

A year after taking delivery of its first A380, China Southern Airlines has finally received permission from the Chinese government to operate the aircraft on long-haul routes, allowing China Southern to take its four aircraft off three daily loss-making short-haul flights. China Southern would only quantify the A380's losses in the first six months of 2012 as under RMB100 million (USD15.85 million).

But China Southern still has work ahead of it. Its first of two planned long-haul routes, Guangzhou-Los Angeles, will see capacity increase 77.8% once the A380 is deployed in Oct-2012. There will likely be a significant period for China Southern to spool-up profitable demand and appropriately market its sixth freedom network. Its second route, Beijing-Paris CDG, is not the outcome the carrier would have hoped for: it will have to partner with Beijing-based competitor Air China, which as the national carrier enjoys elements of protectionism. But without the cooperation China Southern would have struggled to find alternative routes.