China Southern Airlines issues open invitation to brands

Li Jianhua, President and CEO, Guangzhou China Southern Airlines (CSN) Inflight Duty Free says it has enjoyed double-digit sales growth in recent years driven by innovation in its product portfolio as well as the introduction of duty free exclusives and a pre-order service.

“We have redeveloped our products and pricing for specific buyer groups,” said Jiianhua. “But we still need more luxury brands to enter the market to appeal to a new generation of consumers in China.”

She also implored brand owners in the audience to come forward to begin conversations with CSN, whilst promoting the huge potential of the China inflight market.

Jianhua charted the company’s rise to success to become ‘the largest airline in Asia by fleet and passengers’ as the carrier claims. Jiianhua highlighted that CSN launched its first inflight retail programme in 2001 and it very quickly began to play a very important role for the airline, not just from a customer engagement perspective, but from a revenue generation standpoint.

She pointed out that the company wants to extend its global reach, identifying that Southeast Asia represents 31% of the company’s current route quota and with Japan & Korea accounting for 28%.

She also pointed out that she believes the company has great potential, especially considering that Chinese overseas visitors reached 122m in 2016. As the company expands its route reach and takes advantage of the growing number of passengers Jianhua insists that inflight retail will be available on ‘every international flight’.

She noted that research from Fortune Character suggests that Chinese consumption continues, but has slowed down in recent years and high-end consumers now tend to make more ‘rational’ decisions.