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TAIPEI—China Airlines, Taiwan’s largest carrier, will
sign cooperation deals with the mainland’s three largest
airlines to expand its routes through the country.
“Code-sharing is the next step,” Scott Shih, vice
president of the Taipei-based airline, said Friday
aboard the company’s first regular charter flight to
Shanghai. “It will allow us to offer our passengers
flights” further into China.
China
Airlines and China Southern Airlines Co., the mainland’s
largest carrier, agreed last month to cross-sell tickets
and provide maintenance and catering services. China
Airlines expects 20 percent of its cross-Straits
passengers will be from North American routes, Shih
said.
Taiwan
and China’s first direct flights for tourists touched
down Friday, ending a six-decade ban that deprived the
island of visitors from its closest neighbor. The
flights follow the March Taiwan election of President Ma
Ying-jeou on a pledge to improve ties.
Code-sharing is an agreement where two airlines sell
tickets and seats in each other, and ally in
frequent-flier programs.
Taiwanese and Chinese airlines aim to expand cooperation
to cut costs as fuel prices soar. Jet fuel jumped 5.2
percent to $181.85 Thursday in Singapore and more than
doubled in the past year.
Air
China Ltd. and China Eastern Airlines Corp., the
mainland’s second- and third-biggest carriers,
respectively, have both said they want to work with
Taiwanese airlines.
China
Airlines said June 9 it would cut about 10 percent of
its passenger and cargo flights, mostly to the US and
Asia, because of rising fuel costs, joining five other
regional carriers reducing capacity.
The
Taiwanese airline, which operates 70 flights from Taiwan
to Hong Kong per day, is likely to cut “only one or two”
flights on that route this year after the introduction
of nonstop China flights, because the service continues
to be fully booked, Shih said.
China
Airlines fell 6.7 percent to NT$12.55 at the close of
trade in Taipei. (Bloomberg) |
