VIRGIN Blue Holdings and Etihad Airways have signed an agreement establishing a commercial partnership which will enable Virgin Blue’s international arm, V Australia, to launch direct services to Abu Dhabi in 2011.
Between them the two airlines currently offer a joint network of more than 100 destinations.
Together, Etihad and V Australia will move towards a total of 27 weekly services between Abu Dhabi and Australia – including double-daily services between Abu Dhabi and Sydney, daily Melbourne-Abu Dhabi flights and six frequencies per week between Abu Dhabi and Brisbane.
V Australia will operate three Sydney-Abu Dhabi services per week from February 2011 and three Brisbane-Abu Dhabi services per week by February 2012, using its new fleet of three-class Boeing 777-300ERs and becoming the first Australian carrier to operate to the Middle East since 1991.
From this month, Virgin Blue Group customers can access Etihad’s network of 65 destinations across the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent. All Virgin Blue services will be available to Etihad customers, opening up 44 destinations in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, Asia and Los Angeles.
The agreement integrates the Etihad Guest and Velocity frequent flyer programmes, allowing members to earn status/tier points and frequent flyer points immediately along with reciprocal service benefits and lounge access for top tier members of both programmes. The ability for members to burn miles on both carriers’ services comes into effect from October 1.
John Borghetti, CEO of Virgin Blue Group, said: “Everybody wins from this partnership. It increases competition, choice and convenience for the travelling public. Etihad will gain access to the valuable domestic feed in Australia and the Virgin Blue Group will gain east-bound access to an extensive international network serving multiple destinations across the Middle East, the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia.
“With the impending launch of our product enhancements across the group, Virgin Blue and Etihad are ideally suited as airline partners.
“We expect the strategic alliance to have significant revenue and profit upside for both carriers. Importantly, each business will immediately gain from reciprocal traffic flow.”
Etihad Airways CEO James Hogan said the partnership would grow to become one of the Gulf carrier’s most significant.
“Australia is a critically important market for Etihad and we are very pleased to be able to provide more capacity on our Australian routes through this partnership,” he said.