Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) is considering developing Shanghai Pudong into an intercontinental feeder hub Bloomberg news has quoted Delta's Chief Executive Officer, Richard Anderson, as saying.
“When you think about what our strategy is long-term, we need to have a hub in Shanghai like the one we have in Amsterdam Schiphol,” Anderson told employees in a recorded message. “As we plan for our long-term future, it becomes more clear every day that China will be a major part of our business."
As part of plans to enhance its presence in the Chinese market, Delta this week announced it would be relocating its Shanghai Pudong passenger operations from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 in order to ensure greater proximity to its codeshare partners China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao) and its Shanghai Airlines (FM, Shanghai Hongqiao) subsidiary.
“By relocating our operations and growing our partnership with China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines, Delta will offer the most comprehensive intra-China network at Shanghai airport for our customers in the United States and China,” Vinay Dube, Delta’s senior vice president – Asia Pacific, said.
Delta is set to operate twenty-eight weekly departures to Shanghai from its hubs and focus markets in Detroit Metropolitan, Seattle Tacoma International, Los Angeles International and Tokyo Narita this summer. In addition to an existing codeshare agreement with China Eastern, its new codeshare agreement with Shanghai Airlines will allow it to offer connections to nearly thirty destinations beyond Shanghai including four new destinations – Zhengzhou, Guiyang, Nanning and Tianjin.
