【Update: According to China Southern’s latest announcement, the two sides are expected to officially launch frequent-flyer program cooperation in June 2020】
On December 17, 2019, China Southern Airlines (CZ) and British Airways (BA) officially signed a joint venture cooperation agreement at Beijing Daxing International Airport. Starting from January 2, 2020, the two sides will launch joint venture cooperation on the main routes between China and the UK as well as all connecting domestic routes in China and the UK. Award redemptions are only a matter of time, and I believe it won’t be long before BA’s powerful short-haul redemptions can be used to book tickets in mainland China. This relationship between the two airlines has not happened overnight; let’s take a look back:
- In 2017, British Airways and China Southern Airlines launched a codeshare agreement on 10 routes.
- In January 2019, the two airlines signed a memorandum of understanding to expand cooperation across their respective networks and implement a reciprocal frequent-flyer rewards program.
- In October 2019, British Airways became the first international airline to move all of its operations to Beijing Daxing International Airport (most SkyTeam routes were also moved to PKX; see this 101 update)
China Southern has always had a "oneworld" heart, but its old neighbor has not been very supportive. Still, this has effectively opened up a pseudo-oneworld route, with oneworld airlines working with each other one by one and sharing networks.