Regional Round-Up
Four carriers in cross-strait alliance
February 1st 2013
Four Skyteam members, Taipei’s China Airlines and the Mainland’s China Eastern, China Southern and Xiamen Airlines have joined forces to boost market share across the Taiwan Strait between China and Taiwan. Read More »
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| China Eastern Airlines: looking for major returns from the “Greater China Connection” cross-strait alliance |
For decades a political hot potato, with air transport and shipping forbidden from plying the direct route, airlines like Cathay Pacific Airways made rich pickings over the years from traffic using Hong Kong as a China entry and departure point. The new alliance, called the “Greater China Connection”, is seen as a major challenge to Cathay on what is a highly lucrative route.
The four carriers announced in December a joint frequent flyer programme and airport lounge sharing arrangements for cross-strait flights.
The alliance services will account for half of the capacity of the high-yield routes between China and Taiwan with 270 round-trip flights a week. Another 280 round-trip cross-strait flights will operate through Hong Kong. There will also be almost 25,000 China domestic flights a week by the alliance members.
The routes are still government controlled and while restrictions have been relaxed in recent years demand still outstrips capacity.
China Eastern’s senior vice-president alliances, Shan Chuanbo, told the South China Morning Post that he expected the agreement to expand to code-sharing and scheduling alignment that would allow China Eastern to aid the movement of transit passengers from Europe and the U.S. to Taiwan via Shanghai.
“We forecast that our international transit passengers in Pudong Airport will increase to 10,000 a day this year from 6,000 last year.” This would double in 2015, he added.
