"Our goal is to make Beijing our second hub, in addition to the primary hub of Guangzhou."

As Yang noted, 80 per cent of China's international travellers fly out of Beijing. As for the much coveted segment of business travellers, the daily traffic from Beijing to Shanghai averages around 8,000, and the daily volume from Beijing to Guangzhou averages 3,000. "We are aiming at the Beijing market to better serve our target customers," Yang said.

It is also the reason the flight to Africa originates from Beijing instead of Guangzhou. The airline now has 10 international and 29 domestic flights out of Beijing.

In the first nine months of this year, it served 6.5 million passengers with 50,000 flights. The annual revenue is expected to top 4.3 billion yuan (US$550 million), accounting for 10 per cent of the company's total. "Our goal is to reach 10 billion yuan (US$1.28 billion) by 2008," Yang said.

In early November, a 1 billion yuan (US$128 million) project was completed in the airport development zone, including an office building for the hub operation, that China Southern expects will catapult it into the major leagues of Beijing-based airlines in infrastructure.

In the next five years, China Southern will "build its Beijing hub into a stronghold, where we can not only consolidate our domestic network, but also further expand our international presence, especially those markets that can be served by Airbus 380 wide-body aircraft," Liu said.

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