Air China (CA, Beijing Capital) and Air Canada (AC, Montréal Trudeau) have signed a joint venture agreement thereby expanding their existing codeshare relationship and deepen it by increasing commercial cooperation on flights between Canada and China and on key connecting domestic flights in both countries.
"The Sino-Canada market is one of the important long-haul markets to Air China, which has developed rapidly in recent years with an increase of 17.8% in 2017. Air China and Air Canada, as Star Alliance members, have the foundation of a profound cooperation and under a Joint Venture framework will offer a wider range of products and quality services, and provide more flexible flight choices, favourable fare products and seamless travel experiences for customers. Moreover, both parties will take the China-Canada Year of Tourism as an opportunity to support the tourism, trade and culture exchanges for both countries," the Chairman of Air China, Jianjiang Cai, said.
As the joint venture is phased in over the course of the next six months, the two carriers will offer optimized flight schedules, harmonized fare products, joint sales including corporate and marketing programs, aligned frequent flyer privileges, reciprocal lounge access, and an overall enhanced travel experience.
The carriers' recently expanded code-share, effective May 5, 2018, increases the number of Canada-China connecting flight opportunities for customers by 564 each day.
In the last two years, Air China has launched flights directly linking Beijing Capital with Montréal Trudeau, and Air Canada has launched new non-stop flights between Montreal and Shanghai Pudong to meet growth in demand. The two carriers now operate up to a total of 52 trans-Pacific flights per week between Canada and China from Toronto Pearson, Vancouver International, and Montreal to and from Beijing and Shanghai.
