China Southern stepped up an airline challenge to its closest rivals as it gears to introduce the Airbus A380 Aircraft superjumbos next month to service the Europe and North America routes.

This development will have air travel passengers choosing among China Southern, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd and Singapore Airlines Ltd.

China Southern has recently added routes to Auckland, Amsterdam and Vancouver. It also targets

to boost its Australia services as part of its intercontinental push. It will fly 42 times week to Australia and New Zealand beginning November.

China Southern as the only Chinese air transport company to acquire and operate a superjumbo. It is the seventh operator worldwide.

Yang Bo, China Southern's planning department head, said the double-decker planes will support the company's drive to double the percentage of capacity deployed on overseas routes to 35 percent by 2015. The superjumbos have eight first-class seats, 70 in business and 428 in coach.

Last year, the air carrier said in a report it flew 76.5 million passengers across varied destinations. It renovated business lounges and added chauffeur services to entire first-class travellers. The improvements were eventually noticed by the 2011 SkyTrax awards, giving it the world's most improved carrier this year. SkyTrax awards are voted on by more than 18.8 million travellers worldwide.

China Southern's first A380 will fly from October 18 to October 28 on routes between Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou initially to test operations and promote the aircraft before moving onto international routes.

The airline plans to increase its total fleet to 645 planes by the end of 2015 from 424 planes as of June.

It has also ordered other planes currently being produced, including Airbus A330s, A320s, and 10 Boeing 787s.