dnata selects Amadeus' flight management solution

By BA Staff

Amadeus, announced that dnata, part of the Emirates group of Dubai and one of the world’s largest combined air services providers, will implement Amadeus' Altéa Departure Control’s Flight Management solution in their centralised load control offices (CLC) in Dubai.

The airport ground handler, is now present in 75 airports in 38 countries. The deal spans all Emirates and flydubai domestic and international flights and over 100 other dnata customer airlines using the system.

Under the agreement, Amadeus will provide dnata, which offers ground handling, cargo, travel and flight catering services, with a fully automated solution for managing the weight and balance of all flights it handles from its CLC in Dubai.

This solution is a new generation load control platform designed to enable ground handlers to ensure efficient flight departures and optimise the weight and balance process of all handled flights. It improves the productivity of load controllers, and enables greater precision in the forecast and analysis of passenger and cargo load. The system automatically defines optimal load distribution, thereby optimising fuel requirements for airlines and increasing uplift capacity of aircraft.

Jon Conway, Divisional Senior Vice President, Airport Operations, dnata, said:

“Amadeus’ in-depth experience, vast reach and high level of development will help us gain greater efficiencies through the full automation of our weight and balance system. Furthermore, Altéa Departure Control’s Flight Management enables us to provide our airline customers with significant fuel savings. The system’s community and SaaS elements also allow for greater collaboration with our customers. Altea DCS FM is already showing high performance in a centralised load control (CLC) environment, increasing productivity.”

John Jarrell, Head of Airport IT, Amadeus, commented:

“We are extremely pleased to continue our airport journey having signed the world’s fourth largest ground handler. Amadeus is proud to be part of dnata’s successful growth strategy today and into the future. We are certain this will only be the beginning of a fruitful relationship as we work closer together with this important customer to offer further enhancements in ground handling. This agreement enables us to strengthen our foothold globally, alongside our 50 ground handlers currently using our solutions today.” 

Francois Weissert, SVP & Chief Technology Advisor Middle East and Asia, Amadeus, stated:

“We are very happy to add an important ground handler like dnata to our growing list of customers in the Middle-East region, where we already have agreements in Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Amadeus believes in the potential of this region, which has established itself as a global air travel hub over the last few years. Since the creation of our regional head office in Dubai, we continue to invest in this strategic area, growing hand in hand with our customers and the regional travel industry.”

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Analysis: Etihad post strong results; government fears over Jetihad overblown

by Vinay Bhaskara

Abu Dhabi based full service carrier Etihad Airways announced yesterday that it had achieved record revenue growth for the second quarter and first half of 2013. For Q2 2013, passenger revenues grew a robust 8% to $921 million, while passenger revenues for the first half of 2013 hit $1.8 billion, up 13% from $1.6 billion in 2012.

Revenue generated by its code share and equity alliance partners leapt 25% to $184 million in Q2 and was responsible for 20% of Etihad’s revenue for the first half. Passenger traffic as measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) and capacity as measured by available seat miles (ASMs) each grew 13% year over year in Q2; the figures were 15% and 12% respectively for the first half of 2013. Etihad added 11 new aircraft to the fleet over the preceding 12 month period (bringing its fleet up to 78 frames), and added new services to Amsterdam, Belgrade, Sao Paulo, and Washington DC (added at the end of March) in Q2.

Clearly, Etihad has achieved a strong pattern of growth in the shadow of its behemoth rivals of the MEB3 +1 (Middle East Big 3 plus One) carriers; Dubai based Emirates Airlines, Doha based Qatar Airways, and Istanbul based Turkish Airlines. A key component of this growth is driven by Etihad’s equity investments.

In addition to Etihad’s proposed 24% investment into Jet Airways creating the so-called Jetihad partnership, Etihad holds a 29% share of airberlin, 40% of Air Seychelles, 10% of Virgin Australia, and 3% of Aer Lingus. Etihad recently secured Australian regulatory approval to increase its equity stake in Virgin Australia from 10% to 19%.  It also announced that it had signed an Initial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Serbian government to discuss potentially investing in Serbian national carrier JatAirways.

As per the Etihad press release, CEO James Hogan:

…said a significant achievement in Q2 was the improved contribution of the Etihad Airways equity alliance partners, in particular Germany’s airberlin, which has become the largest code share contributor. This reflects increased connectivity between the integrated networks of the two airlines.

And the Etihad results illustrate the case that can be made for the Jetihad partnership. In recent weeks, the Jetihad deal has hit a series of setbacks due to government reticence over allowing control over Jet Airways’ strategy to fall into foreign hands. A report from CNN IBN stated that

Jet's plan to relocate operations and core functions to Abu Dhabi has raised eyebrows as the proposed plan is not consistent with Indian norms, sources said. The co-operative board of the company will have control with 19 foreign nationals nominated by Etihad, sources added, and the government fears losing operation control of the domestic airline Jet.

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh is reportedly sending a note to the Prime Minister’s Office asking Jet and Etihad to rework their deal to allay government concerns that the recent seat sharing agreement in the re-worked Abu Dhabi – India bilateral air service agreement (ASA).

Clearly the Jetihad partnership will benefit Etihad extensively, giving it a solid grip on westbound international traffic from India. And the seat sharing deal indeed does favor Jetihad over other full service carriers serving Abu Dhabi. But the ASA with Dubai is similarly tilted in favor of Emirates Airlines, and Jetihad will only serve to create a strong competitor to Emirates, who has increasingly monopolized westbound international traffic from India.

As to the question of whether Indian norms are being flouted by the addition of foreign nationals… maybe. But is that all together a bad thing? Operating under Indian norms, Jet Airways had fallen into a rut of sustained financial losses and network stagnation. In contrast, Etihad has created robust partnerships with its equity partners and helped re-vitalize them; Aer Lingus is reporting excellent financial results despite recession in Europe and residual demand weakness in its home country of Ireland.

Foreign blood may very well be just what Jet Airways needs to return it to profitability and stability domestically – the expertise of Etihad in running a profitable airline will be invaluable for Jet given the latter’s inconsistent result. And from a practical perspective, Etihad will likely do little to change Jet’s domestic strategy given its lack of expertise in the market. There is even room for some organic international expansion under the umbrella of Etihad; for example Aer Lingus recently announced an intercontinental expansion from its hub in Dublin to San Francisco and Toronto for 2014. Similar opportunities may present themselves for Jet Airways heading eastbound from the new integrated terminal at Mumbai.

I would like to remind readers, this is my view. Your comments, as usual, are requested and welcome.

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Three-way analysis: How does Emirates respond to Jetihad?

By Oussama Salah, Vinay Bhaskara, and Devesh Agarwal

Photo copyright Devesh Agarwal

The Indian government often makes curious decisions in setting aviation policy. For example, it encouraged Air India to lower prices to gain market share, causing mayhem in the market place and increasing Air India’s losses. It also recently  allowed Air Asia to expand in India by approving a JV with the Tata and Bhatia group, creating an LCC that will put pressure on indigenous carriers like SpiceJet and IndiGo. The latest example is the quadrupling in the number of seats between India and Abu Dhabi due to the recently concluded UAE-India bilateral air services agreement which will mostly benefit the newly formed Jetihad partnership.

A recent Bangalore Aviation analysis of International Traffic Share in and out of India, showed Jet Airways share at 16.01%, Emirates at 13.04% and Etihad at 1.95%. In one fell swoop, Etihad has not only caught up with Emirates, but has effectively almost doubled its total seat capacity because its strategic partner Jet Airways will have access to almost the same number of seats from the Indian side of the bi-lateral agreement. This is visible with the newest route being launched by Jet Airways - Kochi-Abu Dhabi-Kuwait.

The Indian market is important to the Gulf carriers as it is an important source of demand to MENA (Middle East and North Africa) , Europe, and North America. In particular, the North American market is being developed by these carriers at a rapid pace, and new routes such as Qatar Airways’ upcoming services to Philadelphia are heavily dependent on feed from the Indian subcontinent. The latest India/UAE bilateral almost doubles the weekly seat allocation for Jetihad to Abu Dhabi.

Dubai has unofficially asked for a doubling of the weekly seat allocation to Dubai and the rights to serve additional Indian metros but officially requested an increase from 54,200 to 72,400 seats per week.

The problem is that Dubai and Emirates airline in particular are in the cross-hairs of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India which has criticised the civil aviation ministry for granting excessive rights to the airline during the tenure of Praful Patel as minister. Emirates is facing the "Devil's Alternative". The spotlight is shining bright on it, however, with India accounting for 11% of Emirates huge global capacity, the airline cannot just let Etihad-Jet Airways (Jetihad) just gobble seat capacity.

Elections are looming next year, some very skilful and smart "lobbying" will have to be done.

Another tactic will be similar to Jetihad. Emirates can opt for to invest in one of the remaining India carriers, IndiGo, SpiceJet, or GoAir, in hopes of gaining additional capacity. It is doubtful the promoters of IndiGo who have access to large sums of cash will accept acquisition, GoAir has indicated its willingness, but is too small within India and does not have any international operations yet. SpiceJet is the wild card. Are the Marans ready to dilute or even exit the airline business with their Maxis and Astro business relations under investigation? Emirates is hesitant to invest in foreign airlines after its poor experience with Sri Lankan Airlines, but will the airline have to bite the bullet to keep its India dominance alive?

Another option is for Emirates to code share with one of the large domestic players like Indigo or SpiceJet in order to increase its Indian feed and encourage them to operate additional flights to Dubai. Emirates currently code share on Jet Airways flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Dubai. Flydubai flies only to three destinations Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Lucknow and would like to increase its Indian presence (which is less than 2% of its capacity). It is capable of serving smaller secondary airports thanks to its fleet of narrowbody 737-800s, and could provide additional feed for Emirates’ super-hub in Dubai. While flyDubai and Emirates are technically separate entities, both are owned and operated by the government of Dubai and increased integration of the route networks is possible.

But code sharing is a short term solution. Ultimately, the real fix has to be driven through the India-UAE bilateral. Emirates needs the increased capacity for itself and flydubai. Emirates can leverage Dubai’s position as a global business hub and destination for Indians to ask for increased services. Indians are the top expatriate investors in Dubai property (9 Billion AED) and the UAE is the second largest trading partner of India with billions of dollars in reciprocal investments. With almost two (2) million NRIs (non resident Indians) living in the UAE, many affluent, the UAE has a solid basis to ask for increased seat capacity in the next round of bilateral talks. However, it would need to find a powerful Indian advocate to help in its cause. Jetihad was able to secure such a large growth in bilateral capacity to Abu Dhabi in large part thanks to the political influence of Jet Airways head Naresh Goyal. It remains to be seen whether Emirates can find a similarly connected individual to help advance its interests, and by extension those of flydubai and even Air Arabia.

Regardless, with the current state of flux in Indian Aviation, Emirates will not stand still in response to Jetihad, expect something to happen, and soon.

Oussama Salah, who blogs at “Oussama’s Take”, is an aviation geek and aviation professional with 35 years of experience in the Mena/GCC airline industry. He is a regular contributor to Bangalore Aviation with his insightful and knowledgeable comments.

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India and Singapore enhance bi-lateral air capacity by 10%

by Devesh Agarwal

India and Singapore signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral air services arrangement in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister, Shri Ajit Singh and Minister of Transport of Singapore, Mr Lui Tuck Yew on April 2 in Singapore. It rationalizes the capacity entitlements of both countries in terms of seats per week in each direction with a route specific cap for Singapore on each route. The MoU also enhances, by 10%, the capacity entitlement with India now entitled to operate 29,400 weekly passenger seats from India to Singapore and the designated airlines of Singapore entitled to operate 28,700 weekly passenger seats from Singapore to India. No additional point of call has been given to Singapore. India also did not agree to the demand of Singapore for additional point of calls from Pune and Madurai.

The common pool rights to the extent of 5160 seats earlier available to Singapore, which provided greater operational flexibility to Singapore carriers at major metro centres viz Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, have now been withdrawn. The designated airlines of Singapore can operate with any aircraft type except A-380. The delegation level talks were held between Dr. Prabhat Kumar, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Mr. Yap Ong Heng, Director-General, Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. Both the sides have agreed to review and update the air services agreement and meet every two years to discuss various air services matters.

Shri Ajit Singh, during his visit to Singapore, also held Minister- level discussions with Minister of Transport of Singapore, Mr. Lui Tuck Yew and Second Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. S. Iswaran, to explore the possibility of co-operation in the area of civil aviation. Both the sides, while expressing satisfaction on growing trade and economic co-operation, felt that there was a need to foster greater co-operation in the area of airport development and airport management. Besides, institutional- level co-operation is needed in the areas of training in aviation skill development, maintenance repairs and overhaul services, aviation safety and exchange of technology transfer in air space management and air navigation services.

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Indian aviation 2012 review Part 1: Overall trends

by Vinay Bhaskara

This is part 1 of our 2012 review of Indian aviation. Part 2 will come next week with a carrier by carrier review of  2012 in Indian aviation. 

When the story of Indian commercial aviation in 2012 is told, the overarching narrative across almost the entire industry will be one of cautious optimism (though Kingfisher Airlines obviously belies this trend). But the theme I’d rather focus on is capacity discipline, or rather the change that single handedly catapulted the Indian airline market back to some semblance of normality. If you remember my 2011 reviews for US and Indian aviation respectively, one of the biggest themes was how capacity cuts pushed the US airline industry to steady profitability, while the Indian airline industry added to much capacity and commensurately reported record losses.

It’s incredible how simple the airline industry can often be; it really boils down in many cases to the simple supply-demand equation. Match supply to demand and price accordingly; control supply to raise prices when your costs increase and you can maintain profits. This is basic microeconomic strategy yet the tendency in the airline industry has always been to chase market share at the expense of profitability.

The specific numbers are particularly heartening. Since March of 2012, monthly capacity growth in the domestic Indian market has not crossed 3% except in May after averaging more than 12% over the previous 20 months. And in the last part of the year, capacity actually decreased sharply, falling to -7.0% in October 2012, and -5.9% in November 2012.

It is important to note that all of this was sparked by the demise of Kingfisher, which had already pulled lots of capacity out of the market before its shutdown. While some mourn the loss of an airline that dared to dream big (and indeed there will be plenty of time to eulogize in 2013), I say that it was a necessary sacrifice insofar as much as the goal was to ensure a viable and sustainable airline industry.
While this process has certainly raised fares in the short term, I’d argue that that is good for the Indian market, in the sense that it will drive long run sustainability. Any unreasonably high fares are obviously bad for the consumer, but the flip side is that fares need to reflect the cost of operation, and through most of 2011 and into 2012, they just weren’t doing so.

The stabilization of fuel prices is another key contributor to the stabilization, if not quite success, of Indian airlines. Over the course of the year, rising oil production from unconventional sources and the easing of tensions in the Middle East after the Arab Spring have pushed the price of a barrel of oil (West Texas Intermediate measure) down to around $90 per barrel, where it has stabilized. While this has not reduced costs any versus 2011, the stabilization has at least bought the Indian carriers some time to reorganize their operations to operate in a high cost environment.

It is interesting to note that the Indian carriers face many of the same challenges as the broader economy. As economic growth slows to an anemic (by BRIC standards) 5-6%, the demand for air travel will continue to soften, not in the least because discretionary purchases like air travel are often among the first cutbacks made by consumers during economic slowdowns. Whether or not this derails the shoots of positivity amongst Indian carriers depends a lot on the government, more specifically the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

2012 was a good year in the Indian government’s management of aviation. The primary achievement of course, was the approval of foreign direct investment (FDI) by foreign airlines, as well as several other smaller rule changes that made the operating environment slightly more conducive to India’s airlines. (The move to end required flying to Northeast states early this year is also very beneficial).  But the main goals for India’s government in 2013 should be to reform the convoluted and confiscatory fuel taxation structure which has been crippling Indian aviation. A reduction in fuel taxes as well as unification under one single national tax combined with reduction in the sometimes exorbitant airport fees charged by places like Delhi Airport (which are hurting traffic growth beyond the existing economic slowdown) would be a very good agenda for the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 2013.

Turning back to FDI, whether or not Etihad buy a stake in Jet Airways in the near term, the clash around FDI in Indian aviation mirrors a broader question that pervades Indian aviation, and even the economy. At some point, India will have to decide whether it wants to let foreign carriers have expanded access and control over the market, or continue to support the Indian airlines. The former option can take two forms, first through direct investment, but also through expansion of bilateral capacity for carriers like Emirates, who has hit its 54,000 seat bilateral capacity limit. And the question is really something that the Indian people will have to make a decision on in the near future.

Basically, the choice lies between two paths. The first is to give foreign carriers near complete access to the Indian market. This would drive significant traffic growth, expanding affordable air travel to the growing middle class. However, this option would likely preclude the development of a robust Indian airline industry. So the question for India moving forward is, would it rather maximize the air service provided to its citizens at a quality price, or strategically opt for a strong aviation sector. My personal preference is towards economic growth, which is best achieved by maximizing aviation growth and lowering prices, but it is really a question for the broader Indian citizenry to decide.

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Analysis: Etihad equity stake in Jet Airways likely to benefit both carriers

Over the past few weeks, it has become increasingly likely that Abu Dhabi based Eithad Airways will be purchasing a 24% stake in India’s largest full service carrier, Jet Airways, perhaps as soon as the end of this week. The deal for a stake in Naresh Goyal’s airline, is reportedly worth somewhere between Rs. 1600 to 2200 Crore, which would value Jet Airways as a whole at somewhere between Rs. 6,666 Crore and Rs. 9,166 Crore ($1.22-1.69 billion). This deal makes Jet Airways the first carrier to benefit significantly from the Indian Government’s decision earlier this year to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by foreign airlines into the Indian airline sector. On the flip side, it puts increased pressure onto the rest of India’s airlines, especially low cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet and now defunct full service carrier Kingfisher Airlines, as they now lose one potential investor. The former lacks capital for profitable expansion of its fleet of Bombardier Q400 turboprops whereas the latter is desperately seeking an infusion of capital before it is grounded permanently.

Immediately, it is important to note that Jet Airways will benefit greatly from this capital infusion, allowing it to make critical investments in simplifying and improving its fleet, product, and brand. As they continue to adjust and restructure their international operations, including the swap of several smaller A330-200s for their larger cousin the A330-300s, the reconfiguration of some of its Boeing 777-300ERs to a more dense configuration, and the termination of several poor-performing international routes. When combined with the swap of 5 ATR 72-500s for new ATR 72-600s, Jet Airways does have a large requirement for capital in the near term, especially as the returns from sale-leaseback continue to diminish (Jet has already sold off many of its assets). And it is Bangalore Aviation’s opinion that the moves that Jet Airways has made will be beneficial in the long term; so the Etihad deal is a vehicle for important long run changes.

But the far more interesting question is what effect will the deal have on Jet Airways’ operations so as to make the deal beneficial for Etihad? The immediate benefit is the expansion of bilateral capacity – allowing Etihad to feed more Indian travelers into their “superhub” in Abu Dhabi. Under the current system of bilateral capacity, Etihad’s rivals Emirates and Qatar Airways are granted more capacity and frequencies into India thanks to the O&D targeting system. Meanwhile, Etihad has all but maxed out its bilateral capacity to and from India, which puts it at a competitive disadvantage relative to Emirates and Qatar Airways in one of the world’s fastest growing demand centers. On the flip side, the Indian airlines have not yet maxed out their available seats and flights to Abu Dhabi, so Jet Airways could jump in and apply for several frequencies between Indian cities and Abu Dhabi using some of its spare narrowbody capacity (aircraft utilization at Jet has been falling for more than a year). This sort of setup is not without precedent – Etihad has already invested in and tied up with several carriers around the world, most notably AirBerlin, Virgin Australia, and Garuda Indonesia.

Each of these carriers either launched new services or increased services to Abu Dhabi following the deal(s) – AirBerlin and Virgin Australia created new flights to Abu Dhabi, and Garuda shifted their Jakarta-Dubai-Amsterdam triangular routing to fly via Abu Dhabi instead. But critically, in each of these cases, the carriers in question did not suddenly halt all other international operations. Garuda continued to expand in its niche in East Asia, AirBerlin actually expanded its long haul operations with new service to New York, and Virgin Australia continued to challenge the Qantas hegemony in the South Pacific.

Similarly, Jet Airways will not just all of a sudden become a regional feeder for Etihad a-la ExpressJet or SkyWest in the US. Moving the westbound international scissors hub from Brussels to Abu Dhabi makes little sense, given that Jet Airways’ longest range aircraft, the Boeing 777-300ER, cannot do runs from Abu Dhabi to the West Coast of the US (at least at its current weight though the flights are theoretically possible), a commonly speculated expansion point. As with each of the other Etihad partners, Jet should be allowed to focus on its strengths, which include the milk runs to the US, the Heathrow flights, and regional flights to the Gulf and East Asia, as well as potential flights to Star Alliance partner hubs. In fact, the value of an Etihad partnership will likely facilitate an expansion in regional international routes for Jet. These are just some of the implications of an Etihad equity stake in Jet. As the deal gets finalized and more details emerge over the coming months, important, and positive changes will be coming to the new Jet Airways.

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India seeks Lufthansa help for Air India to join Star Alliance, again. Jet can join too.

At the Directors General of Civil Aviation conference being held in New Delhi, India's civil aviation minister, Mr. Ajit Singh said that his ministry would once again seek the help of German carrier Deutsche Lufthansa for Air India to enter (may be re-entry) the Star Alliance. In August, the world's largest grouping of airlines had rejected the national carrier's application to join the network.

The minister also offered a carrot saying, that the ministry was open to Air India and Jet Airways joining the alliance at the same time. The Star Alliance has already invited Jet Airways to become a member, but the private Indian carrier has not yet initiated formal steps to becoming a member.

The Economic Times reports and quotes the minister

Civil Aviation minister told media that Lufthansa, which is the founding member of Star Alliance, was given a lot of benefits to ensure that Air India joins the grouping.

"I believe a lot of facilities were given to the airline (Lufthansa) so that it would mentor Air India to join Star Alliance. They were given a lot of flights, it was made almost open skies for them. Now we are going to talk to Lufthansa to adhere to the plan we had," Singh said.

This is an exposè of a very serious nature. As AJ from Live from a Lounge puts it

The Government of India, being the interested party, and the owner of Air India, gave away national property (bilateral rights to fly) bringing in a lot of Lufthansa flights to India, just to ensure Air India got into the alliance.

At a time when the country is abuzz with unchecked distribution of natural resources like Coalgate and Spectrum, unbridled granting of bi-lateral air services capacity is a serious charge, one that has been previously levelled on the ministry when Praful Patel was at the helm, by an organisation no less, than the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. But then, coming to think of it, the statement by Mr. Ajit Singh relates to the time when Mr. Praful Patel WAS the minister of civil aviation.

Mr. Singh also informed that the ministry was looking at the all the existing bilateral Air Services Agreements, and exploring if the limitation of aircraft type could be removed. Such a move would mostly benefit existing middle eastern operators to India Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, along with Singapore Airlines and possibly Lufthansa.

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Air France-KLM, Etihad, Air Berlin enter in to a code share agreement

The Air France-KLM Group, Etihad Airways, and airberlin will implement code-share agreements as of October 28, 2012, which will offer their respective customers more destinations.

Air France, KLM, and Etihad code-shares

On the routes between Europe and Abu Dhabi, Etihad Airways customers will be able to fly on the Amsterdam-Abu Dhabi daily flight operated by KLM.

Air France customers will be able to travel everyday between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways operated flights.

Beyond their gateways, the code-share agreement offers five destinations each to Air France and KLM passengers on the Asian and Australian market and ten European destinations to Etihad passengers on Air France and KLM.

• Air France passengers will be able to connect through Abu Dhabi for flights to Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Katmandu* (Nepal), Mahe (Seychelles), and Male (Maldives).
• KLM passengers will be able to connect through Abu Dhabi for flights to Colombo (Sri Lanka), Islamabad (Pakistan), Lahore (Pakistan), Melbourne (Australia), and Sydney (Australia).
• Etihad Airways passengers will be able to connect through Paris-CDG airport for flights to
• Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Madrid, Nice and Toulouse under an Air France operated flight, and through Amsterdam-Schiphol to Billund, Cardiff, Newcastle, Oslo, and Stavanger under a KLM operated flight.

airberlin, Air France, KLM code-shares

Air France and airberlin announce a mutual codeshare agreement, allowing customers of either carrier to fly on all the routes operated by the other between France and Germany. Passengers will also be able to connect to some selected destinations via Paris for airberlin, and via Berlin or Düsseldorf for Air France.

• Air France passengers will be able to connect through Berlin-Tegel airport to Krakow (Poland), Gdansk (Poland), Graz (Austria) and from Düsseldorf to Dresden (Germany) on services
• operated by airberlin.
• airberlin passengers will be able to transfer through Paris-CDG and Paris-Orly to Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, and Toulouse on services operated by Air France.
• KLM will codeshare with airberlin on three destinations beyond Berlin: Krakow (Poland), Gdansk (Poland) and Kaliningrad (Russia).
• airberlin will codeshare with KLM on Berlin-Amsterdam routes as well as on Edinburgh (UK), Glasgow (UK) and Manchester (UK) beyond Amsterdam.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer, said

“Partnerships are delivering a major source of our revenue growth, by extending our network reach and putting our brand directly in front of millions of new customers. This year to date, they are providing 18 per cent of our revenues and will be a major contributor to our sustained profitability growth this year and into the future.”

The new strategic partners will work together on the proposed integration of frequent flyer programs which includes reciprocal ‘earn-and-burn’ privileges for 1.5 million Etihad Guest members and 21 million Air France-KLM Flying Blue frequent flyers across the combined networks.

Other potential areas of co-operation include joint procurement, as well as maintenance and repair collaboration, as both carriers identify cost savings and seek to benefit from economies of scale, as Etihad Airways is doing with its other strategic partners.

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India and Brazil sign new bi-lateral air services agreement

BASIC and BRIC economic group partners India and Brazil signed a new bi-lateral air services agreement (ASA) recently superseding an earlier 2006 agreement, with an intent to drive greater trade, economic investments and tourism between the two nations.

The new agreement allows for any number of designated airlines (which was previously limited to one per country), to operate up to 21 services per week in each direction with any aircraft not exceeding the capacity of a Boeing 747 (Code E) aircraft.

The designated airlines of each side are entitled to operate any point in each other’s territory, via any intermediate point and beyond to any point.

It remains to be seen how this agreement will spur flights between the two countries since no airline from either country operates flights.

There is open sky agreement in existence for all cargo operations between the two sides.

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