Lufthansa signs partnership deal with Air China

The Lufthansa Group and Air China signed a wide-reaching partnership agreement in Beijing today which will enable the two aviation groups to jointly operate all connections between Europe and China as part of a commercial joint venture.

This means that the two companies will successfully implement what they agreed to do as part of a memorandum of understanding in summer 2014. The joint venture aims to significantly expand their mutual code-sharing connections and enhance their commercial partnership.

This will allow the Lufthansa Group to continue pursuing its partnership-driven Asia strategy. Following a joint venture with the Japanese airline All Nippon Airlines and a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, which was signed in November 2015, this is now the Lufthansa Group’s third enhanced partnership in Asia.

“As the flag carrier, Air China is the ideal partner for the Lufthansa Group in the People’s Republic of China. “This ground-breaking joint venture will fundamentally strengthen our competitive position on routes between Europe and China.

“The significantly enhanced partnership will enable us to create additional benefits for customers,” said Carsten Spohr, chairman of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, at the signing of the agreement in Beijing.

“The Chinese aviation market is one of the most important growth markets worldwide. “We want to profit from this growth together with our Star Alliance partner Air China.”

The Lufthansa Group’s joint venture with the flag carrier of the People’s Republic of China is particularly significant as it clearly strengthens the presence of Lufthansa Group Airlines in the second-most important aviation market in the world.

Lufthansa Group and Air China plan to cooperate more closely in the future. Their flight timetables will be better coordinated with each other, allowing them to provide customers with more convenient connections between their individual route networks.

They also plan to offer common fares, modify corporate programmes to improve the products available to corporate customers and examine the opportunities for optimisation with regard to existing connections in frequent flyer programmes.