Etihad Airways and Air France-KLM have signed a codeshare agreement that will commence on 28th October 2012. Initially, Etihad’s EY code will be placed on Air France flights between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Madrid, Nice and Toulouse, as well as on KLM flights between Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi, Billund, Cardiff, Newcastle, Oslo and Stavanger. Air France will place its AF code on Etihad Airways flights between Abu Dhabi and the Seychelles, the Maldives, Colombo, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Islamabad, while KLM will place its KL code on Etihad flights between Abu Dhabi and Sydney, Melbourne, Islamabad, Colombo and Lahore.
The deal also sees Air France form a new codeshare agreement with airberlin, in which Etihad has a 29.21% share, and allows passengers of each of the two carriers to fly on each other’s routes between France and Germany.
Etihad said this is the first phase of a “much larger strategic partnership”. James Hogan, President and Chief Executive, said the signing of its 40th codeshare offers “countless opportunities to develop an unrivalled commercial relationship”.
Hartmut Mehdorn, Chief Executive of airberlin, said the partnership will add “interesting services” and more choice for its passengers. “In this way we will considerably strengthen our presence in the European market and link our Berlin hub to even more destinations.”
Q3 Revenues
Last week Etihad announced Q3 revenues of US$1.3 billion, up 19% on 2011. The record revenues reflected passenger numbers up 23%, with 2.79 million passengers in the quarter.
Seat factors of 81.2% marked the best ever quarterly performance by the airline, with passenger numbers on track to pass the 10 million milestone in 2012.
