China Southern Airlines records 10 mln hours of safe flying

China Southern Airlines, the country's largest airline by fleet size, said Friday it had recorded 10 million hours of safe flying. The carrier has recorded 13 consecutive years of safe flight operations, which accumulated to 10 million hours. It has carried 540 million passengers without accident, said Si Xianmin, president of China Southern Airlines. The company is also the first domestic carrier to be honored with a top flight safety award issued by the industry watchdog Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), according to Li Jian, deputy head of the CAAC. China Southern Airlines operates more than 480 aircraft and approximately 2,000 daily flights. It carries more than 80 million passengers every year, ranking it as the largest airline in Asia and the third largest in the world.