I must admit I don't get the benefit of this for either Etihad or Aer Lingus. Etihad already fly DUB-AUH, so why split the revenue by getting Aer Lingus to fly it on code share? It can't be due to aircraft shortages as they have more scope than EI for new planes. It also references Etihad code sharing on EI flights but as their main business is moving pax thru AUH, I can't see why pax from Asia for example would want to connect in AUH & DUB to get to Europe for example. They already fly to the US also.
The only thing I can see is that they want to capture the Europe - US market but for this to be beneficial they would want more than 3%.
What am I missing or is this just a Pre cursor to something bigger?