China Southern Airlines is seeking to expand its tie up with British Airways to a joint venture business.
It would significantly expand their cooperation to include joint marketing, scheduling and pricing functions and potentially allow for more routes to launch between the UK and China.
It will also enable enhanced frequent flyer benefits on the respective networks for passengers of both airlines.
The airlines will now offer codesharing on all direct flights between London and Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Sanya, Wuhan and Zhengzhou.
It will then expand to their respective domestic networks over time.
"The agreement reinforces our commitment to boost tourism and business travel between the two countries and we look forward to strengthening the relationship further," said Alex Cruz, chairman and CEO of British Airways.
China Southern has the world’s third largest fleet of aircraft with more than 850 jets and plans to surpass 1000 planes within two years.
