Joint Venture on flights between Munich and Bangkok from summer
After five years of successful cooperation, Lufthansa and Thai Airways International are expanding their partnership. Representatives of the two Star Alliance airlines signed a memorandum of understanding in Bangkok yesterday on a joint venture encompassing connections between Munich and Bangkok.
Starting July 1, Lufthansa and Thai Airways will share costs and earnings on the route, which is currently served with five flights weekly operated by aircraft in the Thai Airways fleet.
In a further step on October 1, the joint venture is to be extended to flights between Frankfurt and Bangkok. Thai Airways offers ten flights weekly with its own aircraft on the route and Lufthansa seven. Since October 1995, Lufthansa and Thai Airways have been codesharing on connections between Germany and Thailand as well as within both countries. The two carriers` customers benefit from their coordinated flight schedules and the pooling of their frequent flyer programmes. The new joint venture also places the partnership on a broader business basis, since it entails steps by the two airlines to harmonise their accounting, data capture and planning systems.

In harness with Thai Airways, one of Asia`s leading airlines and a founding member of the Star Alliance, Lufthansa offers a total of 669 flights weekly to 42 destinations. Their joint services have almost doubled since their partnership began.

Lufthansa is currently operating flights in the joint-venture mode with Star Alliance partners Air Canada, Austrian Airlines Group, British Midland, Scandinavian Airlines and United Airlines as well as with Spanair and South African Airways.

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