China Eastern, Virgin, Air France, KLM Joint Venture
On October 16th, China Eastern announced its intention to enter into a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic, Air France, and KLM, providing more valuable and attractive joint commercial propositions for customers between Europe and China.
China Eastern currently has a joint venture with Air France and KLM by working together on a portfolio of flights between China, Paris, and Amsterdam. With Virgin Atlantic joining the existing partnership between China Eastern, Air France, and KLM, the enlarged cooperation will offer strengthened customer benefits, including increased travel options and optimized connectivity across Europe and China, further facilitated by a developed joint network as well as competitive joint commercial propositions.
Customer benefits between London and Shanghai as part of China Eastern offer
The China-to-United Kingdom markets are expected to be pivotal at a time when China Eastern and Virgin Atlantic services linking London to Shanghai are part of the mutualized offer. ChinaEastern plans to seek to codeshare for the first time on Virgin Atlantic services between London and Shanghai. This will open up a range of customer benefits, including the opportunity for customers to earn and redeem miles across both carriers on flights between China and the United Kingdom.
The announcement reaffirms the company’s commitment to the European market, which will inject new vitality into its international development, network construction, and service improvement and will also contribute to the internationalization of China’s civil aviation and the Belt and Road Initiative.
Tian Liuwen, EVP of China Eastern Group, commented: “ChinaEastern and Air France-KLM have maintained long-term and stable strategic cooperation, which has provided strong support for each other’s services between China and Europe. With Virgin Atlantic’s joining, the cooperation will develop to a higher level, enabling us to deliver more quality products and services for customers between China and Europe.”
