China Southern will resume its connection to Christchurch on November 10, initially with three return flights per week. The airline first commenced operations in Christchurch in 2015 with a single charter flight.
As the demand on the route increased, the airline deployed it B777 with daily service on the route by 2019.
Hailing the return of China Southern, Justin Watson, Chief Executive, Christchurch Airport said: “The impact of the service re-starting will be far beyond our tourism industry. The service is popular with visitors and key for education, business, and high value airfreight such as our famous live lobster and fresh seafoods. People-to-people links and greater prosperity through business and improved trade are the results of airlines such as this.”
According to Tourism New Zealand, in 2019, Chinese visitors were the country's second-largest inbound tourist market, with an estimated 400,000 travelers spending more than NZ $1.7 billion during their visit to Aotearoa, New Zealand. With COVID restrictions removed, New Zealand sees a solid rebound from worldwide visitors, already noting that the spending thus far in 2023 has exceeded NZ $3.2 billion.