China Southern Airlines (hereinafter referred to as China Southern) recently signed a memorandum of understanding for strategic cooperation and, subject to regulatory approvals, a codeshare agreement with Finnair in Guangzhou.

Both parties intend to establish a comprehensive, balanced and long-term relationship to improve services to consumers, grow their respective businesses profitably, and improve the competitiveness of the airlines’ offering to their customers. This is the first time that China Southern has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Nordic airline, which means that China Southern will fill the ‘white space’ in its network in Northern Europe.

The codeshare scheme, which is intended to start in April 22 2019 subject to regulatory approvals, will join the networks of the two airlines so that passengers of both airlines can conveniently transfer to 15 cities in Europe, 8 cities in China and 8 cities in Australia and New Zealand via Helsinki and Guangzhou.

With the convenient and smooth transfer process passengers will be able to enjoy seamless ground services without having to obtain additional boarding passes for connecting flights. More travel options will become available to passengers as their growing travel needs are addressed by resource sharing between the airlines. China Southern and Finnair will continue to search for opportunities to further enhance their cooperation for the benefits of their customers.

The agreement between China Southern and Finnair is a significant move, according to Mr. Zhang Lin, Assistant President of China Southern Air Holding Company. “We are pleased with our cooperation with Finnair. Helsinki is a metropolis where the classical beauty and modern civilization merge. It’s wonderful that through this agreement passengers of China Southern can visit the beautiful land of Northern Europe. China and Finland are in a constructive process of building a new, future-oriented partnership, and our cooperation, in line with the needs for more frequent communications between the two countries, will further expand the exchange in politics, trade, culture and many other fields between our peoples. Our cooperation is based on market demands and consumers. It is about mutual benefits, openness, and sharing. China Southern sees it as an important milestone in building our new international relations.”

Christian Lesjak, Senior Vice President, Network and Resource Management at Finnair: “We are delighted to be entering into this partnership with China Southern Airlines. The impressive scale of their network, the efficiency of their new hub terminal in Guangzhou and high quality of their service will offer our customers convenient and comfortable onward travel options to key Chinese and Australasian destinations outside of Finnai’s own network. We look forward to developing our cooperation and to delivering new benefits and services to our mutual customers in the future.”