Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa have disclosed a codesharing agreement that will give the Hong Kong carrier access to a wider European network and allow the European group to offer passengers new destinations in Australia and New Zealand.
Lufthansa mainline, Swiss and Austrian Airlines will offer single-ticket services to Auckland, Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney under the deal, via Cathay-operated flights from Hong Kong.
On a single Cathay ticket, passengers will be able to connect to Lufthansa Group flights serving Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway and Switzerland, via the Hong Kong carrier's existing services to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Zurich.
The agreement, which spans both parties' frequent-flyer programmes, brings together two airlines from different alliances: Lufthansa is a member of Star Alliance, while Cathay is a Oneworld carrier.
"Co-operation with Cathay Pacific is another key building block in our Asia strategy and supplements existing commercial joint ventures with All Nippon Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air China and other Star Alliance partners in Asia," states Lufhansa Group chief executive Carsten Spohr.
Cathay chief Ivan Chu, who recently led the carrier through a critical review of its overall strategy, hailed the "enhanced connectivity to destinations in continental Europe" that the agreement will bring to passengers.
Tickets for codesharing services will be on sale from 5 April, and the flights begin on 26 April, says Cathay.
Cathay Pacific Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo already collaborate on freight handling.
Lufthansa has this year disclosed a number of codeshares, including with Air Astana, Iran Air and Oman Air. In late 2016, it agreed a codesharing arrangement with Etihad, while Cathay struck a deal with Air Canada.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
