Lufthansa Group and Air China sign commercial joint venture

Air China and The Lufthansa Group signed (20-Sep-2016) a wide-reaching partnership agreement which will enable the two aviation groups to jointly operate all connections between Europe and China as part of a commercial JV. This means that the two companies will successfully implement what they agreed to do as part of a MoU in summer 2014. The JV aims to significantly expand their mutual codesharing connections and enhance their commercial partnership. This will allow the Lufthansa Group to continue pursuing its partnership-driven Asia strategy. The JV will also cover Lufthansa subsidiaries Austrian Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines. Following a JV with All Nippon Airlines (ANA) and a JV with Singapore Airlines, which was signed in Nov-2015, this is now the Lufthansa Group's third enhanced partnership in Asia. Deutsche Lufthansa AG CEO and executive board chairman Carsten Spohr labelled the agreement as "ground-breaking" noting that it would "fundamentally strengthen our competitive position on routes between Europe and China. The significantly enhanced partnership will enable us to create additional benefits for customers". He noted: "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 commercial joint venture is scheduled to commence at the start of the 2017 summer schedule. [more - original PR]