Etihad Airways and Air France-KLM Group have inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost collaboration in passenger operations, loyalty programs, talent development, and maintenance.
The signing ceremony occurred at the Air France-KLM Group’s headquarters in Paris, attended by Arik De, Chief Revenue Officer of Etihad Airways, and Angus Clarke, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Air France-KLM. This partnership aims to expand upon the codeshare and interline agreements established in 2012.
As an initial step, they’ve made over 40 new routes available for booking, covering destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Australia, for travel starting in the winter 2023 season. The MoU also outlines plans for frequent flyers of both Flying Blue and Etihad Guest to earn and redeem miles with Air France, KLM, and Etihad. Additionally, the airlines will explore initiatives like terminal co-location, reciprocal lounge access, and ground handling.
Etihad currently operates daily flights to Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol from Abu Dhabi International Airport, while Air France will commence daily flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Abu Dhabi International Airport from October 29.
Arik De commented on the partnership, saying, “This MoU builds on our existing partnership by exploring deeper network enhancements as we offer improved connectivity between Abu Dhabi and Paris and leveraging the extensive AF-KL network to Europe and beyond.”
Angus Clarke added, “This 11-year collaboration is now expanding even further as we aim to explore opportunities in maintenance and loyalty, in addition to enhancing our route network for the benefit of our customers worldwide. The attractiveness of Abu Dhabi as a destination and hub, powered by Etihad’s large footprint spanning South and Southeast Asia and Australia, brings significant richness to this partnership. This moment marks our commitment to providing seamless, premium, customer-centric travel experiences to our global customer.