Australian flag carrier Qantas plans to get a larger cut of the Chinese passenger market by planning to bring five carriers to China, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

By getting a bigger share of the Chinese market - one of the fastest growing because of the country's red-hot economy - Qantas hopes to reverse its $200 million annual loss on international services. According to the International Air Transport Association, the Chinese market will be the world's most profitable for 2011.

As part of Qantas' expansion, the air carrier has filed several trademark applications with the name RedQ as the front runner for the planned new service to China. It also registered RedQ Executive Express, RedSky and OneAsia.

However, the proposed name of RedQ could create some legal problems with Virgin Australia, which had registered the name Red Jet as trademark several years ago for a charity foundation the company runs.

Qantas and budget unit Jetstar are already into China. The flag carrier has daily trips from Sydney to Shanghai and connecting trips to other Chinese cities through an agreement with China Eastern Airlines. Jetstar flies to eight Chinese cities from Singapore.

Alan Joyce, Qantas chief executive, disclosed that Chinese services currently account for 10 per cent of the company's international revenue, up from low single digits in 2006. He said the new flights to China will likely start in 2012 and Qantas will decide within the next two months if the new carriers would be based in Singapore or Malaysia.

"We know the world is going to change dramatically in that direction... We are planning growth in Asia and we think with a premium and low-cost brand we can compete there," Mr Joyce told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Joyce said the planned China trips would offer lie-flat beds in the business cabin, which would even be superior to its class A380 beds.

If the new carrier would be based in Kuala Lumpur, it would have to tie up with Malaysian Airline System (MAS), which agreed in August to a share swap deal with budget carrier AirAsia. Mr Joyce said that even if there is less corporate travel from Malaysia compared with Singapore, the MAS and AirAsia team up may offer more flying rights and make the Kuala Lumpur hub as profitable as being based in Singapore, which has a stronger traffic base.