Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways has entered into a code-sharing agreement with Dragon Airlines for flights to Chinese and Asian destinations.. The agreement, effective December, will give Cathay's customers greater access to the Chinese gateway cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen.

Cathay and Dragonair will also co-operate to offer better time slots and lower ticket prices to passengers on the Hong Kong-Shanghai route.

The code-sharing pact is also applicable for flight services to other cities like Tokyo and Kota Kinabalu, apart from the new Dragonair destinations of Phuket and Pusan.

The agreement is under an attempt by the companies to compete with Shanghai Airlines, which began Hong Kong-Shanghai flights from Tuesday. The agreement is the latest initiative after the merger of Cathay Pacific and Dragonair. Cathay had acquired Dragonair on September 28, 2006.

Under the agreement, Cathay Pacific has commenced a new service on the Hong Kong-Shanghai route from December 1. Passengers on this route can choose a code-share package or take a Cathay flight one way, while the return flight could be a Dragonair service.

The companies intend to extend the code-sharing pact to over 105 routes operated by Cathay Pacific.

Cathay Pacific's flights will leave Shanghai at 10.35 pm daily, except Saturday when it will leave at 3.05 am. The return flight will depart from Hong Kong at 6.40 pm daily except Fridays when it will leave at 11.35 pm.

At present, Cathay charges HK$1,990 for an economy class return ticket on Hong Kong-Shanghai. However, this does not include the HK$477 airport fees.

Under the code-sharing pact, the carriers would charge an additional HK$510, increasing the total fare to HK$2,500, that ensures them a better time slot. These fares are lower than China Eastern Airlines' economy-class return fare of HK$2,690.

Return flights for Shanghai Airlines on the same route are priced at HK$1,950 for economy (excluding airport fee) that is 22 per cent below Cathay and 26 per cent below China Eastern.

There are 16 flights per day to Shanghai serviced by Dragon Airlines and 14 times a day by China Eastern.

Cathay has just announced that it will reduce its fuel surcharge on short-haul flights by 3.4 per cent to HK$113 per ticket from HK$117 and by 3.1 percent on long-haul flights to HK$466 from HK$481.

Earlier, Dragonair had announced its intention to join oneworld, a global airline alliance. The carrier becomes the eleventh airline to seek entry into oneworld in 2007, the others being Japan Airlines and five of its affiliates, Malév Hungarian, Royal Jordanian, LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador.

The entry of Dragonair will add a total of 15 destinations to the alliance, with 12 of them being in Mainland China. Overall, Dragonair operates to 19 points in the Mainland. worldwide.