United States grants approval to Etihad-Jet Airways code share request

by Devesh Agarwal

On September 4th, Etihad Airways and Jet Airways had petitioned the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) to authorise them to code share i.e. put their marketing codes on each other airlines' flights. Download the original petition in PDF format here or scroll to end of the article to view it and the approval letter.
Etihad requests a blanket Statement of Authorization to permit it to display Jet Airways' "9W*" designator code on any current or future US-United Arab Emirates services operated by Etihad (These may be either nonstop services or services operated via an intermediate point or points; as such, codesharing will not necessarily take place on segments directly to/from the operating carrier's homeland).

Jet Airways requests a blanket Statement of Authorization to permit it to display Etihad's "EY*" designator code on any current or future US-India services operated by Jet Airways.

Initially, Etihad will display the 9W* code on flights operated by Etihad between Abu Dhabi on the one hand and Chicago, New York (JFK) and Washington, DC (IAD) on the other hand, for purposes of carrying Jet Airways' traffic between India and the United States on a blind-sector basis. Jet Airways will display the EY* code on flights operated by Jet Airways between Brussels, which is served as an intermediate point on its India-US services, and Newark, for purposes of carrying Etihad's traffic between the United Arab Emirates and the United States on a blind-sector basis.
The USDOT has provided its approval to the request.

The request though seems to be in conflict with the commercial cooperation agreement that is signed between the two airlines. The agreement reportedly states that Jet Airways will not fly to those destinations already served by Etihad, especially on the west-bound direction, except via Abu Dhabi, the base of Etihad.

The lucrative United States is one of the territories that fall under this. Jet has proposed flights from Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore via Abu Dhabi to New York, Newark, and Chicago. So will Jet Airways' current service from Brussels to the United States continue in the future? In a conference call the senior Jet Airways management called their Brussels hub a "long term engagement".

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