China's largest airline, China Southern Airlines, said Tuesday that its recent merger with Zhongyuan Airlines had increased cargo, luggage and mail loads by a third.

Zhang Rui'ai, China Southern Airlines vice president, added that daily aircraft use has increased 0.5 per hour and China Southern Airlines' market share has grown from 60 percent (before the merger) to 65.6 percent.

China Southern Airlines said that it handled the logistics of optimizing its route network and deleted three duplicate routes from Zhongyuan Airlines schedule.

(Eastday. com 10/12/2000)