During German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel¡¯s state visit to China, SongZhiyong, President & Executive Director of Air China Limited and Carsten Spohr,Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, signed amemorandum of understanding in Beijing to expand the scope of the strategicpartnership between their companies.
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Song Zhiyong, President & Executive Director of Air China Limited andCarsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche LufthansaAG, signed a memorandum of understanding on a passenger joint venturecooperation to enhance the strategic partnership, during the Chancellor¡¯s visitto China.
President Song Zhiyong said at the signing of the memorandum ofunderstanding on 7 July in Beijing, "Air China¡¯s endeavour to become a globalnetwork carrier will not be successful without alliance and cooperation withour partners. The future joint venture cooperation with Lufthansa willfacilitate Air China¡¯s efforts in expanding international route network whileenabling us to achieve win-win results and provide more travel choices andconvenience to our passengers."
"We are delighted that, together with Air China, we will be able to offerour customers, particularly those in Europe and China, even better flightconnections and services in the future," said Mr. Carsten Spohr. "Thanks tostrategic partnerships with leading airlines, the Lufthansa Group airlines nowconnect the world¡¯s four largest economies even better."
In the summer season of 2014, Air China and Lufthansa have a joint capacityinput of 81 flights per week on the Sino-German routes. As of today, Air Chinaand Lufthansa have been codesharing on all their flights between China andGermany. Meanwhile, with the domestic and third-country codeshare, Air Chinaand Lufthansa are able to expand network access to 9 points in China andGermany respectively as well as destinations in Zurich, Spain and Brazil, etc.This new joint venture with Lufthansa will also offer customers of bothairlines a product range that is more varied and can be combined more flexibly.This provides additional travel options and flight connections. The newpartnership agreement should come into force in two phases as early as thestart of the winter flight timetable in late October 2014. Both companies alsosigned a memorandum of understanding to expand collaboration in the area ofmaintenance, repair and overhaul services.
As the largest air carrier between China and Europe, Air China has beenexpanding its route network covering the whole Europe. As of today, Air Chinaowns 23 flight routes between China and Europe with 194 flights per day,reaching 19 major cities in Europe including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Vienna,Rome, Moscow, and Madrid, etc. In 2013, Air China transported 1.95 millionpassengers between China and Europe with an average load factor of over 80%.Based on a strong and balanced global network with Beijing as a hub, andespecially since it joined the Star Alliance in 2007, Air China is able toconnect passengers to 1328 airports in 195 countries. The joint venturepartnership with Lufthansa marks another important step in the globalizationprocess of Air China and will provide passengers with more flight connectionsand travel convenience.
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