This cooperation entails (in their own words):
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Cathay Pacific Airways, Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines, sign code-share and frequent flyer agreement
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Shared flights will mean numerous benefits for passengers
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Connecting flights via Hong Kong to Australia and New Zealand under same flight number in future
Currently, Cathay flies into Cairns, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland while the others do not. With this partnership, passengers arriving into Hong Kong from Frankfurt, Zurich, Munich, and Vienna would be able to feed onto Cathay’s network into the southern hemisphere seamlessly on one booking.
Reciprocally, we will be able to travel to 14 European cities via Hong Kong serviced by Swiss, Lufthansa and Austrian. In other words, passengers can check their baggage through to their final destination and collect miles on any route operated Cathay and the three partners.
In short,
1. Oneworld and star alliance elite members can earn points on destinations served by Cathay, Swiss, Lufthansa and Austrian from Europe to Australia/NZ and vice-versa
2. Cathay’s current network in Europe – Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Zurich – will be boosted to 14 other European stations offered by Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian
On a side note,
With Qantas inaugural’s non-stop 17-hour flight from Perth to London this month, it will be interesting to see how this partnership will pan out. (edit: Melbourne to London via Perth)
Also, Qatar Airways intention to ‘upgrade’ to an A380 from Doha to Melbourne is also going to add pressure to this segment of the market.
Emirates extensive network in Europe via Dubai and into Australia/New Zealand (not forgetting Singapore (Airlines)!) is going to make the competition tougher.
Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa are on the same alliance and SQ serves most of the cities in Australia/New Zealand. Unless you have something against SQ, otherwise why would you choose Hong Kong?
All along I had this suspicion about code-sharing… it is a convenient way to ‘extend’ your airlines reach without actually investing on the route, however the ticket price on a code-share airline is generally, if not always, pricier because in codeshare, an airline has to ‘buy’ the seat on a partner’s airline in order to be able to sell it to you.
On the other hand, with a partnership, a JV, a cooperation or whatever you call it, you will be able to sell seats on your ‘partners’ airline directly. This gives you control as well as retaining your elite members. This kind of partnership looks for a win-win scenario where resources are shared between the airlines (including airline lounges and miles).