Mesa Air teams with Chinese carrier

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LISA NAPOLI: It’s the first joint venture of its kind: The Phoenix-based regional carrier Mesa airlines is going into business with the Chinese carrier Shenzhen airlines.

There’s no name for the new airline yet, but we do know that it’ll consist of 50-seat regional jets and it’ll fly to 11 cities across China.

Nicholas Ionides of Air Transport Intelligence in Singapore believes that it’s something the Chinese government has been pursuing for a long time

NICHOLAS IONIDES: For Mesa airlines, it’s access to one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world.

He also thinks the venture is something the Chinese government has been pursuing for a very long time.

IONIDES: Mesa obviously is a regional operator and obviously has some expertise that the Chinese markets could use, the Chinese government has been trying to push airlines in the country to set up a U.S.-style hub-and-spoke feeder type network so it’s basically win-win for both.

The new joint service will start just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.