As foreign airlines expand fast into China, more flight bookings have been going to TravelSky in recent years. Meanwhile, the average service price being paid by foreign airlines to TravelSky is almost four times that of domestic carriers during the first six months of 2012.

Liu Xiao, an analyst with the Beijing-based Anbound Consulting Firm, thinks under the new policy, foreign airlines would save costs by turning to foreign GDS.

"The application of foreign 'global distribution systems' or GDS will help international airlines remove obstacles in the infrastructure facilities, so that foreign airlines, particularly cheap carriers, could save costs in their business operation in China. This way, these low-cost airlines would narrow down their gap in operation cost with Chinese airline companies, and enjoy a broader development potential in China."

According to Liu Xiao's studies, a number of low cost airlines began to eye Chinese market with ambition, including Thai Tiger Airways, a Thailand and Singaporean joint venture, and Air Asia of Malaysia.

A survey shows that low cost airlines occupy just around 10 percent in Asia's aviation industry; however, the percentage is as high as 27 percent in the United States, and 24 percent in Europe. The findings led many experts to believe there's lots of potential in cheap airliners' development in China, a robust travel market in Asia.

Kelly Chan, senior manager of Passenger Sales Division of China Southern Airlines, admitted her company would encounter increasing pressure from low cost airlines, but she also disclosed that her company wouldn't compete with them in air ticket prices.

"Simply selling flights at low prices to attract more passengers is not a suitable strategy for China Southern Airlines. We would take more flexible steps in the marketing, for instance, we would design more and better tour products for travelers."

Talking about the impact after China opens up its global distribution systems market to foreign competition, Kelly Chan expressed an optimistic prospect, since the new rule doesn't involve Chinese carriers, which would continue to distribute only through TravelSky, the Chinese GDS.

"In fact, we would take our own global distribution system as a new tool for marketing. As some of the systems would devote a special space to advertisement, my company might publish a notice there informing that our A380 would begin to fly between China and Los Angeles from Oct. 12. So we wish that we would be able to turn these challenges into opportunities."

China Southern Airlines is one of the stakeholders of TravelSky Technology Limited, taking up nearly 12% of TravelSky's shares, and the other two state-owned airline companies, China Eastern Airlines and Air China, grab 11% and 9% of TravelSky's shares respectively.

Experts predict the new rules will have little effect on TravelSky's business, as they only involve foreign airlines and do not open up the market to Chinese airlines, TravelSky's main customers, but Liu Xiao thought even though, state-owned airlines in China would be under pressure to improve their service quality.

"Along with China's civil aviation market becoming more open to international airlines, I estimate that competition in China's airline industry between national and international airline companies would go in a more straight way, which puts three state-owned airlines in China subject to more intense pressure. This fact demands them working harder in business innovation and reducing operation cost."