Air China, Lufthansa Group launch joint venture

Air China has signed a wide-reaching partnership agreement with Lufthansa Group to launch a JV on routes between Europe and China from the 2017 summer schedule. The agreement also extends to Austrian Airlines and SWISS. Both carriers signed a memorandum of understanding in summer 2014. Based on the agreement, the two carriers will better coordinate flight timetables, allowing them to provide customers with cheaper connections between route networks. They also plan to offer common fares, modify corporate programs to improve the products available to corporate customers, and examine opportunities for optimisation on existing connections in frequent flyer programs. Industry analysts said the joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa would make these two carriers “formidable” on Sino-Europe routes. <br/>