Lufthansa, Cathay Sign Code-share Deal

Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa Group airlines have signed an agreement on code-sharing and frequent flyer cooperation.

The agreement, which launches on April 26, includes Lufthansa units Austrian Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines.

Under the deal, passengers from Lufthansa’s Frankfurt and Munich hubs, and Austrian’s Vienna and Swiss’s Zurich hubs will have more flight options to Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and Auckland, via Hong Kong on Cathay flights.

Cathay will put its codes on Lufthansa Group flights to fourteen European destinations.

Lufthansa Group chief executive Carsten Spohr said of the “ground-breaking partnership” that it “strengthens our global network … and further improves our airlines' offering on Asian routes.”

He said the cooperation with Cathay “is another key building block in our Asia strategy and supplements existing commercial joint ventures with All Nippon Airways, Singapore Airlines and Air China and other Star Alliance partners in Asia.”

The code-share agreement is not as extensive as the joint ventures Lufthansa has with those carriers.

Passenger code-sharing builds on an existing cargo agreement signed in 2016. Cathay and Lufthansa have been jointly marketing cargo capacity on Hong Kong-Europe routes since February.

Lufthansa is a Star Alliance member, while Cathay is part of oneworld. This is the first time Lufthansa will code-share with a oneworld member airline.