CBI member British Airways boosted its network between China and the U.K. with a new partnership with China Eastern Airlines, one of the three major airlines in mainland China.
Under the agreement, customers of China Eastern Airlines are now able to buy tickets for onward connections to seven cities in the U.K., namely Aberdeen, Belfast City, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, and Newcastle with British Airways, with a China Eastern Airlines flight number added to the sectors.
By the same token, British Airways customers flying to China can connect to Kunming, Xi’an, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Chongqing with the Shanghai-based airline. These tickets are now available for booking on ba.com, with a British Airways flight number added to the sectors.
British Airways currently operates direct flights from Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu to London.
What’s more, British Airways customers flying to the five Chinese cities leveraging the new code-sharing facilitation will have the additional benefit of earning Avios loyalty points on the China Eastern sectors.
Richard Tams, British Airways’ Executive Vice President for China, said, “The U.K. is home to such a unique blend of incredible cultural heritage, modern innovations, as well as marvelous shopping and sight-seeing delights, we are ready to welcome more Chinese travellers to the U.K. to see for themselves. This agreement not only opens up further the China market to our U.K. customers, but also gives our China-based air travellers access to our extensive network in the U.K.”
He added, “With an extensive worldwide network and a reputation for great customer service, China Eastern Airlines is a partner of choice for British Airways. Our collaboration will allow us to serve an even bigger spectrum of the blooming outbound travellers from China.”
