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Qantas will expand its codeshare relationship with China Eastern Airlines in a bid to attract more corporate customers traveling to Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Under the deal, which takes effect from May 1, Qantas will codeshare on China Eastern’s daily Melbourne-Shanghai and thrice weekly Sydney-Nanjing-Beijing services, in addition to the carrier’s domestic Shanghai-Nanjing flights.
The expanded partnership now offers Qantas customers 17 weekly flights between China and Australia. That figure includes Qantas’s existing daily service between Sydney-Shanghai, which will continue to operate as before.
Qantas also codeshares on China Eastern services between Singapore-Shanghai.
Qantas International’s Manager for China, Andrew Hogg, said the expanded codeshare fit into a broader push to strengthen the airline’s presence in Asia.
“We are building on our strong relationship with China Eastern to support growing corporate travel and tourism between Australia and China,” Mr Hogg said.
“China Eastern and Qantas have worked together since our first codeshare agreement in 2008 and more recently on our Jetstar Hong Kong joint venture. We are very pleased to be strengthening this partnership further with today’s announcement.”
With the new additions, Qantas now offers 130 flights to Asia each week, with Nanjing making 11 direct destinations.
