Lufthansa has reaffirmed the importance of Hong Kong to its expansion plans in Asia Pacific.

In his first briefing with media this week, the group’s newly-appointed senior director of sales for Greater China, Veli Polat, identified Hong Kong as a key hub not only Lufthansa, but also for Austrian Airlines and SWISS.

This has been strengthened by the recent signing of a codeshare agreement between Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific, positioning Hong Kong not only as an outbound market and end destination, but also as a transit hub.

“Thanks to our codeshare partnership with Cathay Pacific, which took effect just yesterday, we are able to offer our customers in Europe improved onward connectivity to Australia and New Zealand, and offer local and regional travellers more network options in continental Europe, all via Hong Kong,” said Polat.

“This highly complementary partnership will create more value for customers, and no doubt strengthen the city’s role as a regional hub while benefitting the local travel economy.”

He also stressed the importance of the Chinese market and the company’s plans to introduce new in-flight products to the region.

“Lufthansa Group has been proudly serving China for over 90 years and we are the leading European airline group in the country. However, in this fast-growing and dynamic market, we must continue to innovate and surpass our customers’ expectations. In 2017, we look forward to bringing more personalised services and products, as well as more booking and travel convenience to our customers in Hong Kong and mainland China,” Polat commented.

Lufthansa Group currently operates 26 weekly flights from Hong Kong to four European cities: Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna. Last year SWISS starting flying its brand new Boeing 777-300ER to the city, and Austrian Airlines commenced direct flights between Hong Kong and Vienna.