China Southern affected by ‘one airline, one route’ policy

China operates its long-haul network under a de facto one airline, one route policy that generally limits city-pairs to one operator: Air China is the only Chinese carrier between Beijing and New York; China Eastern the only one between Shanghai and Los Angeles and China Southern the only one between Guangzhou and Paris. There are exceptions, notably for Air China. Although the so-called “Big Three” – Air China, China Eastern and China Southern – are all state-owned, Air China is the flagship, and being based in Beijing and with its former chairman Li Jiaxiang the chairman of aviation regulator CAAC,