Aviation

Emirates, Qantas begin historic partnership

Emirates and Qantas have marked the official start of their historic partnership, with the first Qantas flights departing from Sydney and Melbourne to London via the international hub of Dubai.

Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline andChief Executive Officer of Qantas, Alan Joyce,

The partnership marks a new era for Qantas and Emirates, and for global aviation, as the two carriers collaborate to deliver the best network, lounges, frequent flyer benefits and travel experiences.

"The strength of this partnership stems from the fact the Emirates and Qantas brands are an excellent match. Emirates customers using a Qantas lounge or taking a Qantas flight will experience a level of service that is on par with what they expect from Emirates," said Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline. "Our two airlines offer the largest joint fleet of Airbus A380s and passengers will be welcomed through Concourse A, the world's first, purpose built A380 concourse, at Dubai International Airport, which is the geographical centrepiece of the partnership," added Clark.

"A major benefit is the range of products we are offering frequent flyers. Customers of either airline can leverage many of their privileges when they fly on the joint network, including earning points, redeeming flights and accessing lounges," concluded Clark. Chief Executive Officer of Qantas, Alan Joyce, said the partnership would make long haul travel more seamless and faster for millions of Australians.

"Our customers from Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney have one-stop access to 65 destinations in the Middle East, North Africa, the UK and Europe via the joint Qantas and Emirates network."

Oman Air and Ethiopian Airlines enter into code sharing agreement

Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman has entered into a codeshare partnership with Ethiopian Airlines, the national carrier of Ethiopia on the Muscat and Addis Ababa sectors, which will offer greater choice for customers of the two airlines.

This codeshare agreement will cover flights between the Omani capital of Muscat and the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. The service will be operated using Ethiopian Airlines aircraft and will build on the airline's four flights per week between the two cities. It will be marketed by Oman Air.

Announcing the codeshare, Wayne Pearce, Chief Executive Officer of Oman Air, said: "We are delighted to be joining hands with Ethiopian Airlines to offer our passengers even greater choice and convenience than ever before. With the signing of this new codeshare, seamless travel via Muscat to Ethiopia from any one of Oman Air's many destinations across the Middle East, Europe and Asia has become convenient and easy, giving customers even greater opportunities to see the world and to experience Oman Air's legendary hospitality.

"The codeshare also expands the choice available to those travelling from Ethiopia, who can now fly via Muscat to any one of Oman Air's 42 global destinations. On behalf of Oman Air, I would like to express my appreciation to Ethiopian Airlines and we look forward to a strong and rewarding partnership that offers tangible benefits for the customers of both companies."

Tewolde Gebremariam, Ethiopian Airlines CEO said: "Ethiopian continually works to enhance the connectivity options of its passengers. The codeshare agreement with Oman Air gives our passengers more flight options as well as convenient and hassle free connection to points Ethiopian doesn't fly directly. It also affords Oman Air customers the benefit of Ethiopian's extensive network in Africa currently covering 60 cities on the continent.

On behalf of Ethiopian, I wish to thank Oman Air and to convey our readiness to work hard to enable our customers to reap strong benefits from this partnership."

Etihad equity alliance strategy, a success

Etihad Airways heralded a successful first year of its equity alliance strategy, after a financial reporting season which saw each of the five airlines within the alliance ' airberlin, Air Seychelles, Virgin Australia, Aer Lingus and Etihad Airways, announce profitable performance.

The airlines' individual and collective results were boosted by a number of measures, including growing codeshare traffic between their networks, successful joint sales and marketing efforts, and a range of increasing business and cost synergies.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways' President and Chief Executive Officer, welcomed the success of the airlines.

He said, "2012 was a year in which the global economy remained very tough and in which airline industry profits as a whole shrank, for the second successive year." "Yet each of the airlines in our equity alliance showed strong financial performance with each reporting a profit. That broadcasts two messages, loud and clear. First, we have invested in businesses and in management teams which have the vision and focus to outperform the wider industry.

A JetBlue A320 is parked at Brookley Field after a ground breaking ceremony for an assembly line for the Airbus A320 at Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Alabama. AFP

Second, the 'win-win' of more passengers and shared cost synergies that our alliance brings to each member is having a positive effect on performance." Etihad Airways' equity alliance model has seen increasing cooperation with each of its equity investment airlines. It has codeshare relationships in place with each of the other four airlines, adding to its 38 other codeshares around the world, which together delivered more than 1.2 million passengers onto the virtual network. airberlin, Virgin Australia and Air Seychelles have also already launched new services to Abu Dhabi from their respective markets.

It is working with its equity alliance partners to develop 'centres of excellence' in which operational and commercial expertise is pooled to deliver best practice across the group.

Hogan said: "Because we've got 'skin in the game', we go much, much further than the legacy alliances. Our new model gives benefits on both sides of the equation - revenue and costs."

James Rigney, Etihad Airways' Chief Financial Officer, said: "On revenues, we have seen major boosts to our own traffic from our equity alliance and our other codeshare partners, generating more than US$600 million in additional revenues to Etihad Airways alone during 2012. Of course, those are two-way streets, with all our partners being fed passengers from our growing global network.

Airbus breaks ground on US plant

Airbus broke ground on its first US assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama, hoping it will help carve a greater share in the US market for the European aircraft maker. “It represents the real transformation of Airbus into a truly global company,” chief executive Fabrice Bregier said at a ceremony to mark the launch of construction.

“We'll be manufacturing aircraft in Asia, in America, in Europe,” he said. “Thanks to Mobile, the sun will never set on Airbus.” The company, the key rival of US plane builder Boeing, expects to assemble its A319, A320 and A321 models in Mobile, with the first to be delivered in 2016.

Last year Airbus said production would hit between 40 and 50 aircraft per year by 2018. AFP