China Southern Airlines, one of the three major airlines in China, is operating 16 customized flights as of Tuesday, to help ensure that university and college students to be able to return home for winter holiday, a statement released by the company said.

More than 1,100 students from Jilin University in Jilin province, Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang province and North Minzu University in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region have flown home in Xi'an, Shaanxi province; Xining, Qinghai province; Changsha, Hunan province; Chongqing municipality; Chengdu, Sichuan province; and Guiyang, Guizhou province, via China Southern Airlines' customized flights since the beginning of this month.

China Southern has also begun to use the Airbus 330, Boeing 787 and other large passenger aircraft in more than 30 flights to help increase transportation capacity to the major cities of Changchun, Lanzhou, Chongqing, Harbin, Xi'an, Xining, Urumqi and Nanjing, the statement said.

Meanwhile more than 110 flights, mainly from Guangzhou, Guangdong province, to Tianjin, Taiyuan, Shenyang, Harbin, Ji'nan, Qingdao, Kunming, Chengdu and major cities on the mainland have resumed meeting demand as colleges and universities across the country begin their winter holidays.

These flights had been suspended earlier because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

To provide better services, China Southern has also established special task forces to contact major universities and colleges to understand the needs of students and teachers and negotiate with major airports to open special counters and channels to ensure the students and teachers return home safely and smoothly.

China Southern will operate more customized flights and provide high-quality services to help meet demand from students and teachers to return in the weeks to come, it added.