Summary
- Etihad Airways and Air France-KLM have signed a MoU to expand their partnership, allowing them to coordinate schedules and fares across multiple routes.
- The partnership goals to facilitate increased connectivity between Europe and Abu Dhabi, supporting the expansion of tourism and economic development within the region.
- Frequent flyers can profit from the partnership by earning and redeeming miles across flights with Air France, KLM, and Etihad, in addition to having fun with other perks like lounge access and ground handling services.
Although lots of the world’s largest airlines already belong to alliances, equivalent to oneworld, Star Alliance or SkyTeam, they still wish to form strategic partnerships with other individual airlines. Often these partnerships allow the carriers to coordinate schedules, capacities and fares and usually engage in conduct that, on the surface, seems to flout competition regulations.
A good closer partnership
Last week, Etihad Airways and AirFrance-KLM Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand their partnership, which began as a codeshare agreement over a decade ago. The MoU goals to reinforce collaboration opportunities in areas equivalent to passenger operations, talent development, maintenance and loyalty programs.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
In an announcement on September 7, Etihad and Air France-KLM said that subject to any mandatory regulatory approvals, the MoU was about expanding the codeshare and interline agreements they initiated in 2012. Seemingly unconcerned about those regulatory approvals, the pair have already made available bookings for greater than 40 latest routes across Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Australia for travel as early because the winter 2023 season.
Etihad is already operating flights to each Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) from Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH). The announcement added that Air France will start operating each day flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Abu Dhabi on October 29, 2023.
Abu Dhabi wants more visitors from Europe
In early 2023, Air France-KLM signed an MoU with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism aimed toward reinforcing connectivity between Europe and Abu Dhabi, so in some ways, last week’s partnership announcement is one other step in facilitating that increased visitation. Constructing on that theme, Etihad Chief Revenue Officer Arik De said:
“It reaffirms Etihad’s intent to bolster Abu Dhabi’s cultural and economic growth as we stay up for welcoming more guests to our home having fun with higher travel advantages and enhanced customer experiences along the way in which.”
Photo: Etihad Airways
While these partnerships are often promoted as being in the general public’s best interests that claim can be often fiercely debated and fails to pass muster when viewed retrospectively. Nevertheless, for frequent flyers there may be a direct profit to where and with whom they will earn and redeem those precious points that drive so many purchase decisions.
The MoU proposes that frequent flyers of each Etihad Guest and Flying Blue can earn and redeem miles across flights with Air France, KLM and Etihad. Further increasing the degree of cooperation, the partners wish to explore opportunities for terminal co-location, reciprocal lounge access and ground handling services, with many other options up for discussion.
With Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam Schiphol being major hubs for connecting traffic, this partnership seems almost assured of success because it opens up possibilities for passengers from everywhere in the world. For passengers traveling from Australia with Etihad it opens up the Air France-KLM network with seamless connections in Abu Dhabi, and for those arriving in Amsterdam from the Americas the Middle East, Africa, India and Asia-Pacific are actually inside easy reach.
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