China Airlines, Taiwan’s flag carrier and largest airline company, signed an adherence agreement with the SkyTeam Airline Alliance Sept. 14, paving the way for full entry into the organization in the third quarter of next year.
“Joining SkyTeam is a long-term development strategy for China Airlines,” CAL Chairman Philip Wei said. “Being given the green light means the company’s operations, aviation safety and service are of top-flight, international quality,” he added.
“As the first Taiwanese airline to join the world-class alliance, our strategic target is to strengthen profitability and boost international market competitiveness,” Wei noted.
CAL President Sun Huang-hsiang said, “Our destinations will jump from the current 93 to 900 via code sharing with other members, passenger revenues are expected to increase by 2 percent, and cargo business in Latin America and Africa is likely to grow.”
Established in June 2000, SkyTeam is one of the world’s top three airline alliances, with 13 members including Aeroflot, Aeromexico, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Kenya Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, TAROM Romanian Air Transport and Vietnam Airlines.
“CAL will bring four new destinations to the network: Okinawa, Miyazaki, Surabaya and Palau,” SkyTeam said.
With more than 12,500 daily flights to 898 destinations in 169 countries, SkyTeam serves 385 million passengers annually. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw