Middle Eastern Tie Ups

In the wake of the possible One World alliance joining of five-star airline Qatar Airways, its Middle Eastern rival Etihad Airways has also shaken up the airline industry by announcing a multiple stage codeshare with Air France-KLM. Just weeks ago Emirates Airline announced that it had formed an agreement with Australian airline Qantas in a move that sees Qantas flights stopover in Dubai rather than Singapore in Asia.

As members of the airline industry look to tighten their belts and seek out new ways of increasing revenue and maximizing profits, the three Middle Eastern carriers look to be performing best compared to other areas of the world. Struggling Qantas took the decision to move its stopover operations to Dubai in order to strengthen its position against other global carriers. The codeshare agreement between Air France-KLM and Etihad Airways will start off with just a handful of routes in Europe, opening up Cardiff and Newcastle to the world via Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi, as well as other cities such as Stavanger, Madrid, Nice and Toulouse. One important part of the agreement means that Amsterdam will be opened up to Etihad passengers as a destination and KLM will be able to offer a new route to Australia.

Reciprocating, Etihad will allow Air France and KLM to place their codes on flights to Colombo, Islamabad, Australia (for KLM customers) and the Indian Ocean (for Air France customers). This codeshare is Etihad’s 40^th and means they have a codeshare network of 321 destinations. This is to be the first part of a longstanding agreement between the two airline organisations. Late October is expected to bring further announcements about the partnership.

The two organisations are planning on working together to integrate their frequent flyer programs, allowing passengers to not only transit easily through the various hub airports, but will also allow passengers to accrue miles on each other’s codeshare routes. Etihad Airways has long been a fan of codeshares and partnerships rather than joining an airline alliance as it allows them to select purposefully the routes and networks that are most beneficial to them. The airline increased its stake in Virgin Australia only a few months ago and currently also have a 29 per cent stake in German airline Air Berlin, which has also announced an agreement with Air France-KLM.