Delta Air Lines today announced expanded codeshare agreements with China Eastern and China Southern airlines, two of the largest carriers in the People’s Republic of China, which will provide more options for customers traveling between the United States and China.

The agreements, recently approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, will allow both Chinese carriers to place their codes and flight numbers on Delta-operated flights between Seattle and Beijing. In addition, China Eastern will place its code and flight numbers on Delta-operated flights between Detroit and Beijing.

“We thank the Civil Aviation Administration of China for approving our expanded partnership with China Eastern and China Southern, which provides significant new options for customers of all three carriers and will enhance travel and trade between our nations,” said Vinay Dube, Delta’s senior vice president – Asia Pacific.

The airlines’ agreement already allows China Eastern to codeshare on Delta’s flight between Detroit and Shanghai; and allows Delta to codeshare on China Eastern-operated flights from New York and Los Angeles to Shanghai as well as China Southern’s service between Los Angeles and Guangzhou.
In addition, once the expanded codeshare is implemented, Delta and China Eastern will provide codeshare service to 34 cities within the U.S and China, while Delta and China Southern will provide codeshare to 18 cities in the two nations.

China Southern and China Eastern are both members of the SkyTeam international alliance, which also includes Delta. Later this year, Xiamen Airlines, which operates a network of domestic and regional services throughout China and Asia and whose major shareholder is China Southern, also will join SkyTeam.
The new codeshare approvals pave the way for increased cooperation that will enable Delta and its Chinese partners to jointly develop improved services for the mutual benefit of their customers.