China Southern Airlines have signed a commercial agreement with Qantas Airways, codesharing on flights and investigating other areas of potential cooperation.

The agreement includes expanded travel opportunities for passengers on China Southern flights into Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to fly on the Qantas domestic network to seven Australian destinations including Cairns, Adelaide and Canberra.

Qantas passengers can fly with China Southern from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to its main hub of Baiyun International Airport Guangzhou then onward to four major Chinese destinations – Xiamen, Kunming, Fuzhou and Urumqi.

China Southern is also considering pilot training assistance from Qantas and cargo opportunities.

“We welcome this move because it will give our passengers greater access to Australia and will also open up Australian tourism to a leisure and business market that is growing by nearly 20 percent a year,” China Southern Airlines chairman Si Xianmin said.

The new codeshare services are expected to be available for booking and travel from early 2014.

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