Spanish national airline Iberia has announced a new codeshare partnership with Chinese low-cost carrier Spring Airlines.
Passengers travelling with Iberia to China can now connect to Spring Airlines’ flights to four domestic cities via Shanghai, including Chongqing, Shenyang, Dalian and Changchun.
At the same time, Spring Airlines customers can now book flights from Shanghai to Madrid with the Chinese airline’s flight code 9C added on Iberia’s thrice-weekly service between the two cities.
Business Traveller Asia-Pacific previously reported that Iberia has entered into a codeshare partnership with Haikou-based Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines, which allows the Spanish flag carrier to connect to six domestic cities, namely Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Chongqing and Haikou.
With the new codeshare agreement with Spring Airlines, Iberia’s customers can now fly to a total of nine other domestic destinations in China via Shanghai.
Spring Airlines is a privately owned budget carrier based in Shanghai. The airline now owns a fleet of 81 aircraft flying over 130 domestic routes and more than 80 international and regional routes in Asia.
“Thanks to Spring Airlines we’re going to be able to reach more destinations in China and offer our customers more options and a better product. We already have an agreement with Spring [Airlines] whereby our technical crews can fly temporarily on their aircraft, and this is another step forward,” said Maria José López Solas, Iberia’s chief customer and network development officer.
Wang Zhijie, CEO of Spring Airlines, also commented:
“It is important to have codeshare cooperation with Iberia. Both of us could fully utilise the respective advantages. This cooperation not only enables Iberia to add popular destinations in China, but also makes Spring Airlines’ route network reach Europe.”
The flights can be booked now for travel starting December 1 this year.
