Efforts to get Air China to join the Star Alliance have taken a step forward, with the Chinese flag carrier signing a bilateral agreement with United Airlines that includes codeshare flights.
Star Alliance member United says that from 31 October its daily non-stop Chicago-Beijing and daily non-stop San Francisco-Shanghai flights will carry the Air China code.
Air China's four weekly non-stop Beijing-Los Angeles, three non-stop Beijing-New York and five non-stop Beijing-San Francisco flights will in turn carry the United code. The two carriers will also codeshare on domestic services.
"We are enthusiastic supporters and founding members of Star and we would be more than happy to support an application for Star membership by Air China," says Graham Atkinson, United senior vice-president worldwide sales and alliances.
The tie-up with United comes two months after Air China scrapped its codeshare deal with Northwest Airlines.
Source: Flight International
