China Southern Airlines was created in 1988, when China's civil aviation authority split its single state operation into separate airlines. China Southern took over the Guangzhou region. It grew fast beside the Pearl River Delta factory boom. It also swallowed many smaller carriers, including China Northern and Xinjiang Airlines in the early 2000s. That growth made it the largest airline in Asia by fleet size and passengers carried.
Shares were listed in New York and Hong Kong in 1997. In 2007 it joined SkyTeam, one of the first mainland Chinese members of that airline group. It was also mainland China's only Airbus A380 operator, taking five double-deck jets from 2011. The airline built two big bases, at Guangzhou Baiyun and in Beijing. The new Beijing Daxing airport later became its second home.
In 2019 it left SkyTeam to work with airlines from other groups, including American Airlines, British Airways, and Qatar Airways. Its 'Canton Route' plan sells Guangzhou as a transfer point between Europe, Asia, and Oceania. It competes with big airports in Southeast Asia and the Gulf. Before the pandemic it carried more than 160 million passengers a year. The A380s retired in 2022, and Chinese-built COMAC C919 jets now arrive.