Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has established a strategic partnership with China Southern Airlines (CSA) through a code-share agreement that broadens travel choices for passengers of both carriers.

In a joint statement, they said the agreement signed on Nov. 23 enables them to tap feeder traffic from the domestic routes of the two countries.

From next Nov. 27, passengers of both airlines will enjoy 35 weekly flights between Kuala Lumpur and Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.

The partnership complements the earlier agreement enabling MAS passengers to travel on China Southern flights to 90 destinations in China from Guangzhou and 38 from Beijing while CSA passengers flying into Kuala Lumpur can connect to all domestic points served by MAS and MASwings.

MAS managing director and chief executive officer Datuk Idris Jala said the agreement enables MAS to offer passengers more travel options, further strengthening its presence in China.

"This will further boost our hub-and-spoke network and enable us to leverage on the strong growth of Chinese outbound travelers. We expect to see a seven percent growth in passenger volume on our China-Malaysia bound flights," he added.

CSA vice president He Zongkai said the agreement gives passengers greater flexibility in terms of frequencies, connections and pricing.

"In addition, now that we are in SkyTeam, customers have even more travel choices to China and beyond through our partnerships with SkyTeam members," he added.

SkyTeam is a global airline alliance with 11 full members and three associate members.

MAS flies to Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Kunming, Xiamen and Hong Kong. With its code-share partners and the four times weekly flights to Macau, MAS will offer 98 weekly frequencies between Malaysia and China.