China Eastern in talks with all 3 global airline alliances

SHANGHAI – China Eastern Airlines Corp is in talks with Star Alliance and the other two global airline industry alliances as it moves to boost its profile, a senior company executive said on Thursday.

SHANGHAI – China Eastern Airlines Corp is in talks with Star Alliance and the other two global airline industry alliances as it moves to boost its profile, a senior company executive said on Thursday.

China Eastern, the only one of the country’s top three carries without a global affiliation, is exploring opportunity to join one of the industry alliances, which also includes Star Alliance and SkyTeam Alliance, said the executive, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

American Airlines’ parent AMR Corp (AMR.N) is in advanced talks with China Eastern to bring it into the Oneworld Alliance, AMR’s chief financial officer Tom Horton said earlier this week.

But the China Eastern executive said the carrier did not have a preferred partner so far.

“We are holding parallel discussions with all three groups currently. We hope to join one of them eventually but we don’t know which one yet,” said the executive.

Shanghai Airlines, which China Eastern acquired in February under a government-back deal, belongs to Star Alliance, which groups Air China, a partner of Cathay Pacific Airways.

But that does not necessarily mean the alliance is a preferred partner of China Eastern, added the Chinese executive.

China has been a major bright spot amid a dismal global industry downturn which has pushed Japan Airlines into bankruptcy.

Chinese airlines carried 159 million passengers last year, up 15 percent from 2008, according to official data, as Beijing’s aggressive economic stimulus lifted consumer confidence.

Airlines worldwide, looking for a way to cut costs and increase scale absent full-blown mergers, are seeking more alliances and figuring out ways to cut costs using current ones.

China Southern Airlines is a member of the SkyTeam already.

American Airlines had merger talks with US Airways and alliance talks with Continental Airlines in 2008, just after Delta Air Lines and Northwest merged. Those talks ended as Continental chose to pursue an alliance with United, a source had said.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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