Liu said that in October the two countries signed an agreement to build a US$8.3 billion, 1,315-kilometre railway in Nigeria, for which China will dispatch about 5,000 workers, including engineers. He called Dubai the "ideal transit" point between Asia and Africa because "we already have flights there from Beijing and Guangzhou."

Direct flights will not only save time and bring convenience to travellers going to and from Africa, but also offer a "price advantage," Liu said.

A one-way ticket is priced at 16,000 yuan (US$2,051) for business class and 6,400-9,600 yuan (US$821-1,231) for economy class. If a passenger uses China Southern for connecting flights inside China, or uses Nigeria Airways to connect to other African cities or London, there will be a further discount, he said.

Li Lei, an analyst for CITIC China Securities, said the route may not make money in the near future, but it is significant for exploring and growing the market.

China Southern, with a fleet of 300 large and medium-sized aircraft, is China's largest airline in terms of fleet size, passenger traffic and the density of its service network. "In terms of traffic, in 2005 we were ranked No 9 globally, the only Chinese airline to make it into the top 10," said Yang Defeng, deputy director of the airline's Party Committee Affairs Department.

"To understand how many people we served last year, it was as if we moved the combined population of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou at once," he said.

Although China Southern has always been seen as a Guangzhou-based airline, "it may come as a surprise to you, but we have 21 per cent of the Beijing market," Yang said.

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