British Airways is mulling an alliance with a Chinese airline to strengthen its presence in one of the world’s fastest growing aviation markets.
The carrier has been in discussions with China Eastern and China Southern over forging a partnership, according to Willie Walsh, CEO of BA parent IAG.
“We met informally for a number of years but we’ve been having more formal discussions over the past couple of months,” Walsh said during a visit to Hong Kong.
“We’ve been for some time in discussions with China Eastern and China Southern with the view to codesharing with British Airways and we’re optimistic that we’ll make progress there.”
The Oneworld alliance, of which BA is founding member, does not have a mainland China based airline and Walsh has been searching for a partner in China for more than two years.
BA currently flies from London Heathrow to Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu.
