A China Southern Airlines chartered plane with 160 entrepreneurs and business executives on board, took off from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and headed for Singapore on Monday.

The entrepreneurs and executives from the southern province will attend a special edition of Cosmoprof Asia 2022, one of the largest and most influential beauty exhibitions in the Asia-Pacific region, which will take place from Wednesday to Friday.

"The charter flight is timely and helpful to help stabilize our businesses and foreign trade cooperation, and has enhanced our confidence to integrate into the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership initiative," said Chen Gang, general manager of Guangzhou Wanda Beauty and Hair Tools Co.

"International business travel has been suspended due to the outbreak of COVID-19, and it has become very difficult for us to attend overseas exhibitions, gain an insight into industry trends and discuss cooperation with customers face to face in previous years," said Chen, one of the executives on the flight.

Charter flight CZ5251, operated by China Southern Airlines, was the second to be scheduled by the Guangdong provincial government to help local companies go abroad and expand foreign trade since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago.

By the end of October, China Southern also operated a special charter plane carrying entrepreneurs and executives from 47 enterprises from Guangdong province to take off from Guangzhou and headed for Kuala Lumpur, allowing the business executives to attend the Fourth Malaysia-China Trade Expo 2022 held between Nov 2 and 4.

To overcome travel barriers presented by COVID-19, the Guangdong provincial government has arranged a series of "Cantonese Business Go Global" (CBGG) charter flights, operated by China Southern, to transport entrepreneurs and business representatives overseas for important exhibitions and trade events in an effort to clinch more new deals and expand foreign trade, contributing to the acceleration of the development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, it said.

Headquartered in Guangdong, China Southern, one of China's three major airlines, has been steadily resuming routes and adding international ones serving countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiatives, including Guangzhou-Rome and Shenzhen-Singapore, since the beginning of the year.

In the current winter flight season, the airline has planned to operate 654 routes — 607 domestic and 47 international, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan routes, the company said.

The carrier will provide an average of more than 2,000 daily flights to serve the country's economic construction and contribute to the global economic recovery, it added.