Japan Airlines (JAL) and Hainan Airlines (HU) will expand their code share agreement to include flights the Chinese carrier starts operating on the Osaka-Beijing route from March 25, 2007.

At the end of this month, JAL will be able to place its 'JL' flight code on Hainan Airlines' new 5 times a week Osaka (Kansai)-Beijing service. As a result, JAL will be able to offer passengers a total of 12 flights per week on this route, as JAL already operates its own daily service between the two cities.

The new code share flights further strengthen JAL's network between Japan and China: the largest network linking the two countries. JAL's Japan-China network serves 12 cities in China on 29 routes. The new code share will increase flight frequency between the two countries from 271 to 276 flights per week.

The two airlines initiated a bilateral passenger code share agreement in October 2004, when JAL started code sharing on Hainan Airlines' Osaka (Kansai)-Haikou route.

From May 2005, the code share agreement was extended to cover Hainan Airlines' operated Beijing-Chengdu route, and Japan Airlines' Osaka Kansai-Tokyo Haneda route.

JAL also started code sharing on daily flights operated by Hainan Airlines between Beijing and Chengdu from June 1, 2005, and from April 10, 2006, was allowed to place its flight number on Hainan Airlines' flights serving between Beijing and the cities of Kunming and Xian.