Recently, United Airlines – the wholly owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL – extended its bilateral codeshare agreement with Air China by introducing 22 new air routes between the U.S. and China.
This deal will allow Air China to place 'CA' code on 12 new U.S. domestic routes while United Continental will be able to assign its ‘UA’ code on Air China-bound flights on the remaining 10 routes in China. The new code-sharing routes are available for booking on the website since Jun 2, 2015.
The partnership between United Continental and Air China dates back to 2003. Interestingly, the latest route addition takes the joint flight tally to 110 for these carriers.
Henceforth, passengers of both the carriers will be able to fly to more number of destinations between the U.S. and China. Apart from the extended and seamless connectivity between flights, customers will also enjoy easy one-stop ticketing, more flying options and better baggage check-in facilities. Moreover, United Continental customers will earn frequent flyer points on all Air China flights.
Airline partnerships are a strategic key to a carrier’s growth prospects as they provide expansion opportunities without the need for investing heavily. Thus, the pact extension deal will help both United Continental and Air China enhance their services by controlling costs and taking advantage of travel benefits.
Hence, we believe that these tie-ups with leading carriers will significantly enhance the flight experience for passengers apart from enhancing the carrier’s network and revenues.
Stocks to Consider
United Continental currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks include Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft DLAKY, SkyWest Inc. SKYW and JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU. JetBlue carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) while the other two companies sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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