Headquartered in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd., commonly known as "China Southern Airlines" or "CSN", is a subsidiary of China Southern Air Holding Company Ltd. and specializes in air transportation services.

China Southern Airlines’ logo features a blue vertical tail fin with a brilliant red kapok. Its corporate mission of “Enabling More People to Enjoy Better Flights”, core values of "Safety First and Customer Orientation", and China Southern Spirit of "Diligence, Practicality, Inclusiveness, and Innovation", are well aligned with the ambition to be a world-class air transportation company that is globally competitive.

China Southern Airlines directly or indirectly controls 9 air passenger and cargo businesses, namely Xiamen Airlines, Chongqing Airlines, China Southern Airlines Henan Airlines, Guizhou Airlines, Zhuhai Airlines, Shantou Airlines, Hebei Airlines, Jiangxi Airlines, and China Southern Airlines Cargo Company Limited, and has a stake in Sichuan Airlines. The carrier has 18 branches, such as the Xinjiang Branch, the Northern Branch, the Beijing Branch, the Shenzhen Branch, and the Shanghai Branch, 2 bases located in Nanyang and Foshan respectively, 21 domestic sales offices in cities such as Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Xining, and 52 overseas sales offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Paris, among other cities.

China Southern Airlines is China’s largest carrier in terms of fleet size, route network coverage, and annual passenger traffic. Its subsidiary airlines operate a variety of passenger and cargo aircraft, including Boeing’s 787, 777, and 737 series, Airbus’ 350, 330, and 320 series, and COMAC’s ARJ-21, contributing to the carrier’s leadership in the number of routes, flight frequency, and market share in the country. For 45 consecutive years, China Southern Airlines has consistently topped all Chinese carriers by passenger traffic.

Rated as China’s safest airline, China Southern Airlines is proud to maintain the best safety record in the country with its global leadership in safety management. It has maintained 30 million consecutive hours of safe flight operation and, in 2023, became the first in the industry to receive the "Three-Star Flight Safety Diamond Award" from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. In 2021, the carrier received a Seven-Star rating, the highest rating for safety, from AirlineRatings.com, an independent international airline rating website. By December 2023, China Southern Airlines operated 908 passenger and cargo aircraft, and has ensured 290 months of safe flight operation and 355 months of in-flight security.

China Southern Airlines has been devoted to developing its comprehensive international air hubs in Guangzhou and Beijing. In Guangzhou, sustained efforts have been made for building the Canton Route, which aims to turn the city into a major gateway that connects the Chinese mainland with Oceania and Southeast Asia, and serve the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as well as the "Belt and Road" Initiative. Meanwhile, as the largest hub carrier in Beijing Daxing International Airport, China Southern Airlines operates Asia’s longest-span hangar, the largest operation control center and air catering facility.

China Southern Airlines has stepped up efforts to enhance its operation management and control capabilities. It has achieved many "firsts" in flight operation, for example, being the world's first to complete a transoceanic flight by dual-engine aircraft, and Asia's first to fly over the North Pole. The carrier has developed a sound, advanced, and efficient supporting system for its operations and pioneered a co-developed operation control system, which have effectively revolutionized industry knowledge on operation control in China and significantly improved operation management. Its on-time performance has consistently come out on top among major domestic carriers since 2016.

Dedicated to the service philosophy of "Affinity and Refinement", China Southern Airlines spares no efforts in providing humanized, digitalized, refined, personalized and convenient travel experience to all passengers. It has launched 6 flagship service products, namely "China Southern e-Travel", "Premium Services", "Luggage Priority", "Seamless Transit", "360-Degree In-Flight Service", and "Dine with China Southern". Its frequent-flyer program, the Sky Pearl Club, has more than 100 million members. China Southern Airlines was awarded the "Best Airline in China" by SKYTRAX in 2022 and received the "Five-Star Diamond Award" from the World Brand Lab in 2023. It has been rated the top brand in air transportation service industry by China Brand Power Index for 13 years and Best Airline by CAPSE for 6 years consecutively.

As a central state-owned enterprise, China Southern Airlines actively delivers its CSR promises, striving to create economic, environmental, and social values while working with all stakeholders to "fly towards a better future". It has upgraded its CSR brand, Fly Green, launching the industry’s first "All Green" travel service. It is also China’s first airline to independently develop a big data-enabled aircraft fuel management system, the "E-Fuel", leading the industry in energy utilization efficiency. It has been recognized as the "Environmentally-Friendly Airline of the Year" by China Civil Aviation magazine for 2 years in a row and was awarded the "Sustainable Brand of the Year" in 2023. Its Fly Green program, featuring the eat-as-you-need campaign, the first of its kind in the industry, won the championship at the first Golden Key-China Action for SDG competition.