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UAE/INDIA. Etihad Airways has received approval to take a 24% holding in Indian carrier Jet Airways – the first time foreign investment has been allowed in any Indian airline.
Etihad said the first step of its expanded Indian operations would see weekly flights doubled for routes to Mumbai and New Delhi immediately, with further frequency increases to Kochi from June next year, Banaglore and Chennai from July and Hyderabad from October 2014. Etihad will offer 14 weekly routes to all those destinations.
The airline will also increase aircraft size on Indian routes, upgrading to wide-bodied Airbus A340 and A330s on routes to Mumbai and New Delhi. On the evening Mumbai A340 service it will introduce first-class cabins.
Etihad Airways and Jet Airways also plan to codeshare (subject to approval) on flights between Abu Dhabi, India and other markets in the Middle East, North America and Europe – including new flights by Jet Airways between India and the USA via Abu Dhabi.
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Etihad Airways President and CEO James Hogan said: “India is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing air travel markets, and will play an increasingly important role in our growth. We have laid the foundations for major and exciting growth in air services between Abu Dhabi and India, and throughout our global network.
“Our equity alliance enables much deeper cooperation than can be achieved through a standard commercial partnerships. In addition to joint activities which increase revenue, the relationships we have with our equity partners enable us to reduce costs and increase efficiencies through activities such as resource sharing, knowledge transfer and joint procurement.”
The airlines are also exploring other synergies including the integration of their loyalty programmes, shared airport facilities and offices, common training and joint sales forces in appropriate markets.
Etihad Airways has also invested in airberlin (29%), Air Seychelles (40%), Virgin Australia (19.9%) and Aer Lingus (3%). It is awaiting regulatory approval to acquire 33.3% of Swiss regional carrier Darwin Airline and in January 2014 will take a 49% investment in Air Serbia.
