China Southern eyes growth with Beijing hub after strong 2018

China Southern says 2018 was a successful year for its hub development in Guangzhou, and it will push to develop a dual-hub strategy with the opening of a second airport in Beijing later this year. The state-owned carrier handled 4.42m transit passengers at its Guangzhou Baiyun International airport hub last year, an 8.56% jump from a year ago. Of these, 945,000 were international transit passengers, up 8.65% from 2017. The carrier’s network at Guangzhou connects to 145 points, including to 51 international destinations. In all, the group carried 140m passengers, 10.8% higher than a year ago, driven by increases in both domestic and international numbers. ASKs rose 12%, while RPK jumped 12.4%. Load factor saw a marginal increase to 82.4%. Cargo carried climbed 3.3% to 1.7m tonnes. China Southern has earmarked the upcoming Beijing Daxing airport, which is set to open by the end of the year, as its second major hub. <br/>