China Southern Airlines (NYSE: ZNH) has said that its commitment to e-ticket sales five years ago is paying major dividends for the carrier.

The airline is currently selling about 570,000 tickets each month to the Chinese marketplace via its Chinese website at http://www.cs-air.com, and calculates that at least 20% of its total sales are coming from Internet sales.

Li Kun, chief operating officer of China Southern Airlines, said that since the airline first launched e-ticketing in China five years ago it has been reaping vast sales from the technology. The airline also said that with the large volume of Internet ticket sales China Southern Airlines has saved about USD12m in operational costs.