China Southern Airlines fleet reaches 700, targets 1000 aircraft in 2020

China Southern Airlines announced (02-Sep-2016) the group's fleet reached 700 aircraft with the arrival of an A321 (B-8640) on 02-Sep-2016, making China Southern the largest airline in Asia and the fourth largest airline globally in terms of fleet after American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines. China Southern said it aims to expand its fleet to 1000 aircraft and handle 160 million annual passengers by 2020. The airline's fleet reached 100 with annual passengers reaching 15 million in 1998. It also achieved its 200th aircraft milestone in 2007, 400th in 2010, 500th in 2013 and 600th in 2014. Also in 2014, the airline became the sixth airline group in the world and the first outside Europe and the US to transport more than 100 million passengers p/a. China Southern transported 109 million passengers in 2015, ranking the carrier first in Asia and the third in the world. [more - original PR - Chinese]