GUANGZHOU -- China Southern Airlines is to start flights between Guangzhou City in south China's Guangdong Province and the city of San Francisco in the United States.

The company, speaking on Wednesday at the Zhuhai Airshow, announced it would offer three flights a week from Guangzhou to San Francisco via Wuhan City in central China's Hubei Province, starting on Dec 16.

The airline aims to launch four-a-week direct flights from Guangzhou to San Francisco and raise the number of flights between Guangzhou and New York from four to seven flights a week by the middle of next year.

China Southern Airlines is the country's largest air carrier by fleet size. It started flying to North America in 1997. The company also flies from Guangzhou to the cities of Los Angeles in the United States and Vancouver in Canada.

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