China Southern Airlines (CSA) signed a code-sharing agreement with Japan Air System (JAS) Thursday in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

According to the agreement, CSA, which operates on the Guangzhou-Osaka-Guangzhou air route and offers three flights each week, will sell tickets for the air route run by the Japanese airways using CSA's code name "CZ".

JAS, which runs the Osaka-Guangzhou-Osaka air route and also has three flights a week, will sell tickets using the code name of "JD" on the air route operated by the CSA.

Information on the code-sharing flights will be shared by both companies via computerized air ticket booking systems.

The alliance will help expand marketing networks and create more favorable conditions for the two companies in the future.

CSA is one of China's three leading air company groups. It has 107 planes including 86 Boeings, 20 Airbus planes, and operates 334 domestic and overseas air routes connecting Guangzhou with 85 other cities around the world.

The number of passengers traveling on the Guangzhou-Osaka-Guangzhou route has increased by an annual rate of 20 percent since 1998. In the first six months of the year, over 26,700 passengers took this route.

(People's Daily 09/22/2000)