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Czech Airlines agreed to code-share cooperation with China Eastern Airlines

Czech Airlines agreed to code-share cooperation with China Eastern Airlines

Czech Airlines agreed to code-share cooperation with China Eastern Airlines on the route that the Chinese airline operates from Frankfurt am Main to Shanghai. The cooperation agreement will be signed by the end of this year. Code-share flights to China will appear in the Czech Airlines flight schedule from the 2010 summer season, which starts on 28 March 2010.

“Every such agreement, however difficult it may be to achieve, is a significant benefit for the building of a global dimension for Czech Airlines,“ said Petr Pišt?lák, Czech Airlines’ Vice President for Marketing and Product Development, concerning this development. Both companies are carrying on in their negotiations about the introduction of a direct Prague – Shanghai connection that would be operated by China Eastern Airlines. “We perceive the attitude of the Chinese partner as being very welcoming on this point.  For Czech Airlines, this would mean a strengthening in the connection between Europe and Asia, which has been hit the least by the present economic crisis, and another piece in our puzzle of network flying via Prague,” adds Petr Pišt?lák. According to the joint estimate of both airlines, the first realistic date for the commencement of the operation of the route would be the start of the 2011 summer season.  But all is conditioned on the profitability of the route, whose economic aspects are currently being analysed by Czech Airlines.

Czech Airlines has also started code-share cooperation with the Israeli national carrier EL AL, which will apply from the 2009/2010 winter flight schedule.  The Israeli airline will place Czech Airlines OK code on its scheduled Tel Aviv – Prague – Tel Aviv route.  Passengers travelling to the Holy Land will thus have more options: in addition to the Czech Airlines flight with a scheduled daily departure from Prague at 11:55 p.m., there will be EL AL flights in the winter season, leaving Prague on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:40 a.m. and on Sundays at 11:15 a.m.

For passengers, code-share flights are advantageous because, for example, they make it possible to book the entire route, i.e., several connecting flights with transfers, through one contact centre.  For code-share flights, Czech Airlines clients can also earn miles in the OK Plus frequent flyer programme.