Air France-KLM inks cooperation deal with Ctrip
Pieter Elbers, president and CEO of KLM (second left) and Ctrip CEO Sun Jie (second right) sign a strategic framework agreement in Shanghai on Friday.
Air France-KLM will cooperate with China’s online travel platform Ctrip.com to cap the increasing demands of China’s travel market.
The two sides signed a strategic framework agreement in Shanghai on Friday to deepen a memorandum of understanding they signed recently in The Hague.
Through the partnership, the airlines and Ctrip will work together mainly in six areas, including distribution, marketing, services and customer loyalty. Both sides will utilize and integrate their expertise and resources to provide a wider array of comprehensive travel services and products to the China market, according to the agreement.
“We will elaborate on the possibilities to broaden our distribution channels and foster better customer loyalty,” Antoine Pussiau, senior vice president of Air France-KLM for the Asia-Pacific region said at the ceremony.
China has become the largest market for Air France-KLM in the Asia-Pacific, and the carriers have strived to be at the forefront of technology and digital innovation, the airlines said.
In winter 2018, Air France and KLM will operate 78 direct flights to nine destinations in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Taipei. They are also operating 118 flights to China with partners China Southern, China Eastern and Xiamen airlines.
“The partnership will enable us to offer more options for travelers on the China-Europe route in the most flexible and integrated way possible,” said Sun Jie, CEO of Ctrip. Europe has become one of the most popular outbound tourist destinations for Chinese tourists, she added.
