Guangzhou based China Southern Airlines is putting the A350-900 on its Guangzhou-Brisbane-Guangzhou route. Currently, the route is serviced by an A330-200. The first China Southern A350-900 heading to Brisbane will push back from Guangzhou on December 29, 2019. 

As Zac George in Points From the Pacific notes, this comes just in time for the busy southern hemisphere summer season. In addition to upsizing the aircraft on the route, China Southern will increase frequencies to Brisbane from seven per week to ten a week for much of the summer.

Right now, China Southern sends one of its A330-200s down to Brisbane each day. The A330 aircraft doesn’t offer China Southern’s most up-to-date seats or cabin layouts. Whilst the economy cabin has a crowd-pleasing 2-4-2 layout, the business cabin has a 2-2-2 layout and does not feature fully lie-flat seats.

The A350-900 is a big step up as Zac George points out. The aircraft carries 314 passengers across three cabins. The main economy cabin has 262 seats in a 3-3-3 layout. The premium economy cabin has 24 seats in a 2-4-2 layout and business class has 28 seats in a 1-2-1 layout. Business-class on the A350-900 does feature fully lie-flat seats. That combined with direct aisle access will make China Southern far more competitive when chasing the premium passenger dollar.