China Southern reveals Boeing 787 schedule: China, Europe, Australasia
By David Flynn, April 27 2013
China Southern will send its Boeing 787s to Australia and Europe, an airline executive has confirmed to Australian Business Traveller.
The first of the airline's 10 Dreamliners is due for delivery later this year, with first flights within China for domestic travellers, said China Southern Executive Vice President Mr Chen Gang.
"According to our initial plan, we will be using the 787 Dreamliners on the Canton Routes, for example European routes and also our routes to Australasia."
Chen's use of 'Australasia' rather than just 'Australia' indicates that Auckland may be in line for a Boeing 787, along with its key Australian ports of Sydney and Melbourne (CZ also flies to Brisbane and Perth).
China Southern's current roster of European destinations includes London, Amsterdam and Paris.
Chen admitted that the airline's 787 delivery schedule "has been affected by its technical issues", which saw the beleagued Boeing jet grounded for three months after a series of critical overheating problems with the lithium-ion battery system.
However international regulators have now cleared the Dreamliner for a return to the skies following a series of design changes by Boeing which include containment and venting systems for both the main and auxiliary batteries
China Southern's 787 rollout pattern follows the same as adopted for the Airbus A380, with domestic flights coming ahead of international services.
Chen also confirmed that China Southern will launch its flagship Airbus A380 on Sydney-Guangzhou flights from October 27.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 Aug 2012
Total posts 130
Will be nice to see a 787 on the BNE route given that it is high unlikely that any airline perhaps except EK will use an A380 to serve BNE in the forseeable future.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
David - Any insights in the cabin config? Will they have Business and Eco and use the same seats as in the A380 or will the 787 be modelled after the A330?
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2555
Nothing yet on China Southern's 787 config, KG, but there's no risk in saying it'll be business and economy (they wouldn't run all-economy 787s on those long routes). Economy seats have to be chosen from Boeing's 787 supplier catalogue, but when it comes to business class airlines can choose between the Boeing catalogue and BYO seats, so CZ could go either way.
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