Delta Air Lines Reaches Across Pacific

ATLANTA (TheStreet) -- Delta(DAL) and Skyteam continue to expand their list of Pacific region partners.

On Thursday, Delta announced a code-share with Hawaiian(HA), the principal Hawaiian carrier.

And on Friday, Bloomberg quoted sources as saying that China Airlines, Taiwan's biggest airline, has agreed to join the Skyteam alliance headed by Delta and Air France-KLM.

Delta serves Hawaii from Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Tokyo and Osaka. Beginning Sept. 15, passengers can connect between Delta destinations in Hawaii and 70 daily inter-island flights on Hawaiian.

In Hawaii, Delta serves Honolulu, Maui, Lihue and Kona.

"While Delta is already a leader in service to Hawaii with flights between the islands and 9 cities in the U.S. and Japan, this new codeshare agreement with Hawaiian Airlines will allow customers to connect beyond our main Hawaiian gateways to five popular vacation points beyond," said Charlie Pappas, Delta's managing director for alliances, in a prepared statement.

The China Airlines deal reflects Skyteam's continuing rapid growth in Asia. This year, Skyteam has signed up Vietnam Airlines and China Eastern Airlines. That means that China Eastern and China Southern, two of the big three Chinese airlines, are Skyteam members. Air China is in the Star Alliance, leaving American(AMR) and the Oneworld alliance without a mainland partner.

In a recent interview, Kenji Hashimoto, American vice president for strategic alliances, said American and Oneworld can get passengers into China through alliances with Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and with Japan Air Lines, as well as on its own flights from Chicago to Beijing and Shanghai.

As far as mainline carriers, Hashimoto said, "There are a lot of airlines in China." The fourth biggest is Hainan. Asked whether Oneworld is talking with Hainan, Hashimoto responded: "We talk to all of them."

-- Written by Ted Reed in Charlotte, N.C.

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