Qantas and China Southern Airlines to partner, clawing back at gains from Cathay Pacific & SIA

Qantas' move to codeshare and establish a partnership with China Southern Airlines combines two themes in partnership strategy: my enemy's enemy is my friend, and if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Qantas, with seven weekly flights from Australia to China, will never be the size of China Southern, which has 47 weekly flights to Australia and New Zealand and plans to boost it to 55 by 2015.

China Southern will complement Qantas' existing partnership with China Eastern. While it helps that China Eastern and Southern are friendly with each other, China Southern's base in Guangzhou is more favourable for connecting south China destinations than China Eastern's Shanghai base. It is initially southern China destinations Qantas will codeshare on, in addition to Australia-China flights while China Southern receives domestic Australian codeshares.