United Airlines to extend, strengthen partnership with Air China

United Airlines has announced it will extend and further strengthen its partnership with Air China. Both the Star Alliance partners are currently into a multi-year joint strategic initiative under which connecting flight opportunities would be expanded and frequent flyer opportunities for either airline’s customers enhanced.

Media reports said that the customers traveling on both airlines would now be able to gain seamless connectivity through Air China’s Beijing hub, as well as United Airlines’ China gateway San Francisco. The initiative will also see both the carriers expanding their joint marketing efforts. United Airlines is presently offering flights from San Francisco to Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu. The airline is also planning to add more Chinese routes by 2016 end, which includes Hangzhou and Xian.

A spokesperson of United Airlines said that the new agreement goes much beyond the codeshare arrangement. The new expanded partnership between the two carriers is specifically designed to further strengthen and evolve the relationship for serving the customers even better and enhance their experience.

United Airlines had earlier in February this year celebrated its 30th anniversary of launch of its flights services to mainland China. The airline is currently operating nonstop flights from Beijing to Washington Dulles, San Francisco, New York JFK, Newark Liberty and Chicago. The airline is also offering nonstop flights from Shanghai to various U.S. cities including San Francisco, Newark Liberty, New York JFK, Los Angeles and Guam.

Another Chinese city Chengdu is also being served with nonstop flights to/from San Francisco. Moreover, United Airlines is also planning to launch flights to two other new Chinese routes. The airline will be launching nonstop flights between Xi’an and San Francisco starting from May 8, 2016, while nonstop flights to Hangzhou from San Francisco will be launched beginning July 13, 2016. The services on the two new routes are however yet to be approved by the government.