Air New Zealand (ANZ) and Cathay Pacific have received regulatory approval for an alliance between the two airlines on services between Hong Kong and New Zealand.
Under the agreement, the two carriers will codeshare on each others' services between Auckland and Hong Kong from 31 January 2013, and will also co-ordinate flight schedules to facilitate better connections onwards from Hong Kong.
"This agreement with Cathay Pacific will provide our passengers with a huge range of additional connections through Hong Kong to mainland China, as well as access to better-value fares on these connections on Cathay Pacific or its sister airline Dragonair," says ANZ chief executive Rob Fyfe.
"We are pleased to enter into this agreement with ANZ, which will help us explore further the great potential of this market," says Cathay chief executive John Slosar.
Innovata Schedules show that Cathay Pacific and Air New Zealand both fly daily services between Auckland and Hong Kong.
Separately, ANZ has announced that it will cease operations of its Hong Kong-London service from 4 March 2013, following a review that confirmed that the route would not be profitable in the foreseeable future.
The airline says it will instead redeploy the capacity onto its North American destinations of Los Angeles and San Francisco, and it will retain its daily Los Angeles-London service.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
