Announcement Made During German Chancellor Angela Merkel's State Visit

During German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel's state visit to China, Song Zhiyong, President & Executive Director of Air China Limited and Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing to expand the scope of the strategic partnership between their companies.

Song Zhiyong, President & Executive Director of Air China Limited and Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, signed a memorandum of understanding on a passenger joint venture cooperation to enhance the strategic partnership, during the Chancellor's visit to China.

President Song Zhiyong said at the signing of the memorandum of understanding on 7 July in Beijing, "Air China's endeavour to become a global network carrier will not be successful without alliance and cooperation with our partners. The future joint venture cooperation with Lufthansa will facilitate Air China's efforts in expanding international route network while enabling us to achieve win-win results and provide more travel choices and convenience to our passengers."

"Thanks to strategic partnerships with leading airlines, the Lufthansa Group airlines now connect the world's four largest economies even better," said Mr. Carsten Spohr.

In the summer season of 2014, Air China and Lufthansa have a joint capacity input of 81 flights per week on the Sino-German routes. As of today, Air China and Lufthansa have been codesharing on all their flights between China and Germany. Meanwhile, with the domestic and third-country codeshare, Air China and Lufthansa are able to expand network access to 9 points in China and Germany respectively as well as destinations in Zurich, Spain and Brazil, etc. This new joint venture with Lufthansa will also offer customers of both airlines a product range that is more varied and can be combined more flexibly. This provides additional travel options and flight connections. The new partnership agreement should come into force in two phases as early as the start of the winter flight timetable in late October 2014. Both companies also signed a memorandum of understanding to expand collaboration in the area of maintenance, repair and overhaul services.

FMI: www.lufthansagroup.com/en/company.html