Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has agreed to increase its stake in airberlin, Europe’s sixth largest airline, to 29.21 per cent, becoming airberlin’s largest single shareholder.
...
airberlin will shift its Middle East operation from Dubai to Abu Dhabi;
- airberlin will operate four A330-200 flights a week between Berlin and Abu Dhabi from January 15, 2012 - with European travellers having immediate access to a total of 29 flights a week to and through Abu Dhabi from four German hubs, with a plan to increase to 42 flights from mid-April;
- the airlines will implement an extensive codeshare agreement, with Etihad Airways codesharing on 36 of airberlin’s 171 destinations and airberlin codesharing on 24 of Etihad Airways’ 82 passenger destinations, and plan further expansion of the pool of codeshare routes;
- Etihad Airways will sign codeshare agreements with the airberlin group for all European activities including NIKI, the Austrian airline, and Belair, the Swiss airline; and
- Etihad Guest and topbonus, the airlines’ frequent flyer programs, will be integrated, enabling passengers of both airlines to ‘earn and burn’ on each other’s flights and offering reciprocal benefits - including status earning - to top tier members.
Under the agreement, Etihad Airways will have two seats on the Board of Directors of the Air Berlin PLC.
Press Releases - airberlin.com
EY is serving FRA, MUC and DUS while AB will fly out of BER. Maybe EY will launch AUH-HAM.
What does it mean for EI and is EY as a possible oneworld member?