China Southern opens new service to New Zealand's South Island

China Southern Airlines Wednesday became the first airline to operate a year-round direct link between the Chinese mainland and New Zealand's South Island.

The new three-times-a-week service officially opened when a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, landed just before 5 p.m. at Christchurch Airport.

The flight made history because China Southern Airlines was the first Chinese carrier to fly to New Zealand and now the first to fly to the South Island, airport chief executive Malcolm Jones said in a statement.

"This is a milestone day for the South Island. The new service offers more than 70,000 seats in its first year, which means an estimated growth in visitor spend of more than 100 million NZ dollars (67.66 million U.S. dollars) across all southern regions," he said.

Government statistics showed that when Christchurch was their entry point, international visitors on average left around 85 percent of their spending in the South Island, compared with less than 35 percent when the entry point was not Christchurch.

Cabinet ministers and 10 mayors from around the South Island welcomed the arrival. Endit