News
Air China and Air Canada to seal trans-Pacific partnership?
March 23rd 2018
Star Alliance partners, Air China and Air Canada, could be entering a trans-Pacific joint venture this year, Air Canada CFO, Michael Rousseau, said at the JP Morgan Global Aviation and Transportation Conference. Read More » “We have been negotiating with them for some time and hopefully we'll conclude the agreement later this year,” said Rousseau.
The Air Canada CFO said the airline hoped to replicate its “very successful” trans-Atlantic alliance with Lufthansa and United Airlines, which has been in place for five years. Air China and Lufthansa launched a joint venture (JV) in 2016 on Asia-Europe routes and United and Air China “strengthened and expanded” their trans-Pacific “partnership” in the same year.
“Certainly, we believe the alliance across the Atlantic between us and United and Lufthansa has been successful,” Rousseau said. “We want to replicate that with Air China to Asia.”
Last December, Air China and Air Canada expanded their “strategic cooperation” with the addition of five code share routes on each carrier. Air China will place its code on Air Canada's new daily Montreal-Shanghai flights, as well as Air Canada's flights from Vancouver to Victoria, Kelowna, Saskatoon and Regina.
In addition, Air Canada will place its code on Air China's flights between Beijing and Zhengzhou, Xiamen, Shenzhen and Nanjing and Air China's Montreal- Havana route. The expanded codeshares will come into effect next month..
