China Airlines, Delta to code-share

China Airlines Co (華航) and Delta Air Lines Inc yesterday jointly announced a two-way code-sharing program that begins today.

Under the program, the two carriers can sell seats on each other's trans-Pacific flights.

The partnership helps bring Delta Air back to Taiwan after it pulled out of the country nine years ago.

"Taiwan is a market filled with opportunity, with growth in tourism and rapidly expanding trade," Paul Matsen, a Delta senior vice president, told reporters in Taipei yesterday.

"We hope to expand the cooperation to include destinations beyond the Taiwan carrier's hub," Matsen said.

As of today, Delta will use its code for China Airlines flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Honolulu, Seattle and New York (JFK) to Taipei.

In June last year, China Airlines began to use its code for Delta flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Atlanta, Dallas, Cincinnati, Salt Lake City and Honolulu .

"The agreement is a milestone for us, indicating that Delta, the world's second-largest airline [by passengers carried], trusts us and is willing to put its customers in our hands," said Philip Wei (魏幸雄), president and CEO of China Airlines.

Burt Pinoli, general manager of Delta's Asia division, based in Beijing, told the Taipei Times yesterday that Delta is anxious to re-enter the Taiwan market.

The US carrier left Taiwan at the end of 1995, when the US airline industry was experiencing a downturn.

"We view Taiwan, as well as the whole of Asia, as a very important area considering the strong economic growth in recent years. For Delta, the best thing to do is to make partnerships, as we have a limited presence in the region on our own," Pinoli said.

China, the world's fastest growing economy, is a main target for Delta to fly its own service, Pinoli said.

Delta has a code-sharing agreement with China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) on the Los Angeles-Guangzhou route.

The carrier hopes to add Chinese destinations, either by using their planes or through code-sharing with Chinese carriers, Pinoli said.

But the plan may not be realized in the near term, as the US authorities are still negotiating with their Chinese counterparts on opening more destinations for US carriers.

Delta early last month announced a first-quarter net loss of US$383 million, or US$3.12 a share.

The first-quarter result was an improvement from a year ago, when Delta had a net loss of US$466 million, or US$3.81 a share.

Last year Delta started a discount service, Song, which Pinoli said had seen good results.

The US aviation industry has been struggling to recover from a series of setbacks: the Sept. 11 attacks, the SARS outbreak, the US-led war against Iraq and now soaring fuel costs.

Pinoli added that the growing popularity of low-cost carriers is a threat to the large, established airlines in the US.

"We hope to continue to develop this sector, while providing our original full service to customers," Pinoli said.