China Southern Airlines enables International Outbound Online Bookings

China Southern Airlines has implemented Amadeus’ e-Retail solution for international outbound bookings.

Travellers in China are now able to book tickets to China Southern’s global destinations via the China Southern website.

Amadeus and China Southern have been working together since 2006, when Amadeus technology first helped the airline to process inbound website bookings from customers outside China. This latest development sees Amadeus powering all international online bookings for the carrier’s inbound and outbound customers.

Gan Jiang, Deputy Manager, Passenger Marketing & Sales Division, China Southern Airlines said, “The e-Retail booking engine helped us increase our online content and functionality for our international travellers, and we wanted to extend these benefits to our growing home market. We’re very happy to be able to cater to the needs of our Chinese customers by offering them the convenience, choice and speed of booking through our website. This will improve our customers’ online experience, while boosting our ticket sales.”

With the e-Retail solution platform, customers of China Southern Airlines can book all international flights on its website, including codesharing flights originating from Sky Team, a global airline alliance that comprises China Southern Airlines and 10 other member carriers.

Chinese customers can now also make payments conveniently via debit cards. The functionality to process other international payment cards will be added in the coming months.

David Brett, President, Amadeus Asia Pacific, said, “The number of Internet users in China has grown over the years to reach 298 million, comprising more than 22% of the total population. This number is expected to maintain its rapid growth, and these consumers are increasingly relying on the Internet to find information and purchase travel.”

“This presents a great opportunity for airlines such as China Southern Airlines to strengthen their market position through the online channel. Amadeus has the technology to support this strategy and we look forward to helping China Southern Airlines harness the Internet’s ability to reach out to existing and potential customers directly, both in China and abroad,” he added.

Based in Guangzhou’s new award-winning Baiyun International Airport, China Southern Airlines is one of China’s largest airlines. It has 13 branches in China, and 54 international offices in major global markets such as London, New York, Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo.

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