Lufthansa: a joint venture with Air China could mean almost half its ASKs are covered by JVs

Lufthansa chairman and CEO Christoph Franz told Bloomberg (9-Oct-2013) that his airline is in discussions with Star alliance partner Air China over a possible commercial joint venture to allow for better connections between Europe and China: "In the future, we will not only link our mutual hubs, but it will be important to also have direct links between major European markets and Air China's hubs, and the other way round."

China is an important market for Lufthansa, which already operates joint ventures with partners on routes to North America and Japan. It has a long history of collaboration with Air China in various forms, albeit often with an underlying competitive tension. A new JV would require the two to align their goals in the Europe-China market and could bring the portion of Lufthansa's ASKs operated under such partnerships close to one half.