Juanefny

At least one more choice...

PARIS, April 12 (Reuters) - Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines (600115.SS)(0670.HK) is set to join the SkyTeam global airline alliance, La Tribune newspaper reported in a preview of its Tuesday edition.

Stocks

The move is expected to be announced at the end of the week, the newspaper said.

SkyTeam includes Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) and Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), as well as China Southern Airlines (1055.HK)(600029.SS).

China Eastern, the only one of the country's top three carriers without a global affiliation, had said earlier this year it was in talks with SkyTeam, as well as rival groupings Oneworld and Star Alliance.

SkyTeam was not immediately reachable for comment. (Writing by James Regan; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN...pe=marketsNews

AndyTLe

Route Map http://www.flychinaeastern.us/ctva781/routeMap.do

Inflight service http://www.flychinaeastern.us/ctva781/inFlight.do

skchin

I hope the FSC isn't too high like Singapore Air.

FWAAA

I wonder if this is as certain as all those articles that proclaimed that JAL had dumped AA and was joining Skyteam?

publicmsu

It's good to see that they provide a quality online experience, much like Delta!

China Eastern - Page has not been found

The page you requested is unavailable or cannot be found.

Return to the Home page or try again later.

fotaman

Did anyone else look at China Eastern's logo and it reminded you of Malaysia Airlines?

AndyTLe

China mimicking someone else's design? Shocker.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Stereotype much?

RobertS975

Also, remember that in some cases, it took over two years from the announcement of ST until it took effect. In other words, do not hold your breath on this!

AndyTLe

A.net discussion that BOTH China Eastern AND China Airlines want to join ST. That would be huge for ST.

jimrpa

Oh good grief - we lose SQ as a redemption partner only to gain yet another communist/formerly communist/state-run enterprise/formerly state-run enterprise in it's place?

Delta - what are you waiting for? The proletariat to arise and throw off the shackles of overpriced, substandard award redemption opportunities?

Delta has unceremoniously dumped so many quality partners over the years in their single-minded pursuit of the mediocre.

Anyone remember Singapore? Virgin? Emirates? Heck, even Air France, back when we could redeem for Concorde or FC, was half-way decent.

zman

China Airlines already code shares with DL, but it is the Taiwan airline to avoid. It is very distant in service compared to EVA. CZ is alreday a sky member and has superior service to MU.

AndyTLe

Don't forget El Al.

pbarnette

At the end of the day, these decisions are made with an eye toward cornering the biggest markets. China surely qualifies.

Besides, with all of the exclusions on SQ redemptions (no flat bed J or suites), I think a lot of the value has eroded there.

As to China Eastern, I would note that they are already a DL partner, so joining SkyTeam would likely only add MQMs to the mix.

toyotaboy95

It's not only service, the key point is safety (although they improved a bit in the past few years).