AIRLINES & ALLIANCES

Qatar Airways and China Southern Airlines Expand Flights and Codeshare Partnership Ahead of the Chinese Golden Week, Offering More Connectivity Between China and the World via Doha

Qatar Airways and China Southern Airlines today announce a major expansion of their codeshare partnership and an increase in frequencies between Doha and Beijing ahead of the Golden Week holiday period in China. This growth builds on the Memorandum of Understanding signed last year, reinforcing the airlines’ shared commitment to delivering greater connectivity for global travellers from China.

Starting 16 October 2025, Qatar Airways will share code on China Southern’s three weekly direct flights between Beijing Daxing and Doha. Similarly, China Southern will be expanding its “CZ” code on Qatar Airways-operated flights beyond Doha to 15 destinations across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, including Amman, Athens, Barcelona, Cairo, Dar es Salam, Madrid, and Munich.

Qatar Airways Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Thierry Antinori, said: “Qatar Airways and China Southern have established a partnership that continues to set new benchmarks in the industry. This latest expansion ensures that every Qatar Airways route to China is now accessible to China Southern Airlines’ passengers, underlining our long-term commitment to a market that is integral to our growth and connectivity. Timed with this year’s Golden Week, it provides Chinese travellers with unrivalled access through Doha to over 170 destinations across our global network via Hamad International Airport, the Best Airport in the Middle East, as voted by Skytrax in 2025.”

Qatar Airways has already placed its code on China Southern-operated flights between Guangzhou and Doha since April 2024. Building on the existing codeshares from Guangzhou and Beijing Daxing, China Southern will extend its code to flights between Doha and four major Chinese cities of Chengdu Tianfu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, subject to Chinese government approvals.

China Southern Airlines President and CEO, Mr. Han Wensheng, said: “Beijing Daxing is a cornerstone of China Southern’s international development, and the launch of new Doha services further strengthens its role alongside our existing operations from Guangzhou. Together with Qatar Airways, we are expanding opportunities for Chinese passengers to reach destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas through Doha’s Hamad International Airport. This partnership underscores our commitment to building broader global access and delivering world-class service to our customers.”

With this frequency increase and codeshare expansion, Qatar Airways and its two strategic partners, China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, will now offer 64 weekly flights across eight gateways in Greater China. This is one of the most extensive networks established by the World’s Best Airline, operated on state-of-the-art aircraft equipped with Starlink’s free-for-all Wi-Fi connectivity in the skies.

Qatar Airways and China Southern Airlines will continue to cement their partnership in other areas, including cargo operations and loyalty programmes, as part of their joint commitment to build robust and sustainable partnerships which benefit travellers around the world.

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About China Southern Airlines

Headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China Southern Airlines is China’s largest carrier in terms of route network coverage and annual passenger traffic.

The Carrier has been devoted to developing its comprehensive international air hubs in Guangzhou and Beijing. In Guangzhou, sustained efforts have been made for building the Canton Route, which aims to turn the city into a major gateway that connects the Chinese mainland with Oceania and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, as the largest hub carrier in Beijing Daxing International Airport, China Southern Airlines operates Asia’s longest-span hangar, the largest operation control center and air catering facility.

Dedicated to the service philosophy of “Affinity and Refinement”, China Southern Airlines spares no efforts in providing humanized, digitalized, refined, personalized and convenient travel experience to all passengers, and was awarded the “Best Airline in China” by SKYTRAX in 2022 and received the “Five-Star Diamond Award” from the World Brand Lab in 2023. It has been rated the top brand in air transportation service industry by China Brand Power Index for 13 years and Best Airline by CAPSE for 6 years consecutively.