Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) yesterday signed a letter of intent with China Eastern Airlines Co (中國東航) — which is scheduled to fly its first charter flight from Nanjing to Taipei today — for the two firms to join forces to provide aviation and financial services to business travelers and tourists across the Taiwan Strait.
“We aim to provide our mutual customers with the utmost convenience and comfort when they are traveling,” Cathay Financial president Chen Tsu-pei (陳祖培) said at the signing ceremony yesterday.
He said that Cathay Financial believes that cross-strait tourism and business exchanges will further prosper following the introduction of the weekend direct cross-strait flights.
China Eastern Airlines president Cao Jianxiong (曹健雄) also expressed an upbeat view on future tourism and business exchanges between Taiwan and China.
“We’ve officially set up a liaison office in Taipei in order to better serve our customers here,” Cao said.
Cathay Financial will reward its cardholders who use their credit cards to pay for flights with China Eastern, with one bonus point per NT$20 spent for ordinary cardholders and two bonus points for premium cardholders. Points can be used to purchase “airmiles” from the airline. Around 35,000 points would get members a round-trip ticket between China and Taiwan, the company said.
Pending further discussions, Cathay Financial and China Eastern might also launch a co-branded credit card, Cathay Life Insurance (國泰人壽) president Fate Chang (張發得) told reporters yesterday, adding the Chinese airline has rented office space from the insurer which will be home to its new Taipei office.
Chang said that the life insurer would also be offering premium insurance coverage for travelers flying China Eastern between Taiwan and China.
Commenting on the direct cross-strait flights, Cao said that rising fuel prices had posed a challenge for the company to make a profit from the charter flights, but the airliner would do its best to provide a quality service to cross-strait tourists and business travelers.
Each plane would need to be 50 percent to 55 percent full of passengers for the airline to break even, he said.
After forming a joint venture with Cathay Financial to create a Shanghai-based insurance subsidiary five years ago, China Eastern hopes to explore more business opportunities in cooperation with Cathay Financial in Taiwan, Cao said.
Founded in 1988, China Eastern now has 230 aircraft flying more than 450 routes all over the world and it has 35,000 employees.
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