News
China Southern and American Airlines reveal code share strategy
October 13th 2017
When American Airlines (AA) announced in late March it would acquire a 2.7% equity in state-controlled China Southern Airlines (CSA), many in the industry were perplexed. AA is a oneworld member and CSA is tied up with rival SkyTeam. Read More »
More than half a year later, it appears the two carriers are defining the scope of their future partnership. In a filing with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT), CSA will place its “CZ” designator on six AA routes from the U.S. to China: Chicago-Beijing, Dallas-Beijing, Los Angeles-Beijing, Chicago-Shanghai, Dallas-Shanghai and Los Angeles-Shanghai. In return, the U.S. carrier will put its “AA” code on three CSA U.S.-China routes: Guangzhou-New York JFK, Guangzhou-San Francisco and Wuhan-San Francisco.
In addition, the two airlines will code share on 14 Chinese domestic routes out of Beijing: Guangzhou, Chengdu, Nanning, Shenyang, Changchun, Wuhan, Chongqing, Changsha, Dalian, Kunming, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Harbin and Xi’an.
CSA will add its code on AA routes out of Los Angeles to Charlotte, Washington (Reagan), Dallas, Houston, Mexico City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Tucson and Vancouver. The CZ code also will be on AA flights from San Francisco to Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia and Phoenix as well as Dallas-Toronto and Chicago-Toronto.
In late September, AA moved from Beijing Capital Airport’s Terminal 3 to Terminal 2 to better align its operations with CSA. AA and CSA will move to the new Beijing airport in 2019, the estimated year of completion of the new airport.
CSA is Asia’s largest carrier. It planned to assign 250 aircraft to the new airport, including a large number of A330s and its five A380s. By 2025, it wants to operate 900 daily flights from Beijing, following a US$2.3 billion investment in a dedicated 1.1 million square metre terminal at the new airport.
