SkyTeam member China Southern will completely remove first class on its flights between Brisbane and Guangzhou in favour of more seats in business class and economy.

Currently served by an A330-200 with four first class suites, 24 business class beds and 141 standard economy seats, that’s swapped to a larger A330-300 come July 2 2015 – boosting business class and economy to 30 and 187 seats, respectively.

Also affected is the airline’s separate ‘economy plus’ cabin which offers travellers up to five inches of extra legroom, losing one row to become 41 seats: down from 47.

A China Southern spokesperson confirmed the changes to Australian Business Traveller, and also shared that Brisbane-Guangzhou flights would increase from five-times-weekly to daily between October 25 2015 and March 26 2016 on the newer aircraft.

CZ382 currently departs Brisbane at 9:55am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, reaching Guangzhou at 5pm on the same day.

On the return, CZ381 is wheels-up at 9:15pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, touching down in the Queensland capital at 8:25am the following morning.

China Southern is also shaking up its other Australian flights with selected Sydney-Guangzhou services upgraded to the Airbus A380 over the Australian summer and Perth-Guangzhou flights boosted from four- to five-times-weekly come October.

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