Etihad and Lufthansa to codeshare

LUFTHANSA HASN’T ALWAYS seen eye to eye with Gulf carriers but it’s now embarking on a cordial flight-path with Etihad after both groups announced a new codeshare and wetleast agreement.

The German airline will place its LH code on Etihad’s twice daily Abu Dhabi-Frankfurt flights and twice-daily Abu DhabiMunich flights.

The UAE’s national airline will put its EY code on Lufthansa’s long-haul, non-stop intercontinental services between Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro, as well as Bogota.

A six-year, wet-lease agreement, starting next month, involving Lufthansa Group and airberlin – in which Etihad Aviation Group holds a 29 per cent stake – will see Eurowings (33 planes) and Austrian Airlines (five) lease 38 aircraft from airberlin.

Saj Ahmad, Chief Analyst at StrategicAero Research, said the agreement shows Lufthansa has realised that a deep partnership with Etihad is far more favourable in the long term, since collaboration will break barriers and develop more network options.“Equally, Etihad’s desire to strengthen its European base gets a huge boost by tapping into Lufthansa’s expansive regional network and the deal that sees almost 40 A320s wet leased to Eurowings from Air Berlin demonstrates the breadth of this cooperation,” he said.