China Southern Airlines has just launched an online seat booking service to bring a new experience for Chinese passengers.

Now with this new service, passengers can choose their favorite seat based on the sketch map provided by China Southern after they purchase an air ticket from China Southern's website. While many overseas airlines like American Airlines have already had this feature for many years, Chinese airlines and online travel firms are still in a nascent stage of development.

Before the service was launched, passengers often needed to apply for a seat directly with the airlines' staff when checking in at the airport and the staff then needed to decide whether the seat the passenger wanted was available according to the seat layout. As a result, passenger demand for a specific seats could not always to satisfied.

China Southern says it will send the result regarding the seat booking via SMS to passengers.