Etihad Airways Partner airlines chief executives gather for leadership summit |23 September 2015
From left to right: Bruno Matheu, chief operating officer Equity Partners, Etihad Airways; Roy Kinnear, CEO Air Seychelles; Stefan Pichler, CEO airberlin; James Hogan, president and CEO Etihad Airways; Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, chairman Alitalia; Maurizio Merlo, CEO Etihad Regional; Cramer Ball, CEO Jet Airways; and Dane Kondic CEO Air Serbia.
Chief executives of six airlines in the Etihad Airways Partners group have met in Rome to identify and progress collaborative initiatives designed to cut the carriers’ costs, increase their revenues, and expand sustainable choice for their customers.
The partnership summit was being chaired by James Hogan, president and chief executive of Etihad Airways, and brought together the leaders of Alitalia, the airberlin Group, Jet Airways, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Etihad Regional, and the chief officers of Etihad Airways and Alitalia.
Etihad Airways holds minority stakes in Alitalia (49 per cent), airberlin (29.2 per cent), Jet Airways (24 per cent), Air Serbia (49 per cent), Air Seychelles (40 per cent) and Darwin Airline, which trades as Etihad Regional (33.3 per cent).
The meeting followed the conclusion last week of an innovative collective financing agreement, through which US $700 million was raised on the international markets for use by Etihad Airways, Etihad Airport Services, airberlin, Alitalia, Jet Airways, Air Serbia and Air Seychelles.
“The airline industry is global, not local,” Mr Hogan said. “Individually, we are small participants in the global market. But collectively, our partnership serves 330 destinations, flies almost 700 aircraft and carries over 100 million passengers each year, making us the world’s seventh largest grouping of airlines. We leverage the buying power, resources, relationships and influence of our participating airlines to achieve the most cost-effective and customer-friendly outcomes.”
Members of Etihad Airways Partners also work together to reduce costs and improve efficiency and customer choice through measures which otherwise would only be available through mergers or takeovers.
In addition to codesharing and joint commercial activities, members of Etihad Airways Partners collaborate through resource sharing, adoption of best practice, and joint procurement of assets, services and supplies.
They also develop relationships between each other, or ease deals with external airline partners or suppliers.
Beyond last week’s joint financing agreement, the airlines also collaborate on the sourcing of IT platforms, aircraft and insurance, and share resources including pilot and cabin crew training.
A number of airlines in the group have sourced additional aircraft from each other or redeployed excess fleet to each other.
Employees have been transferred between airlines, enabling members of Etihad Airways Partners to recruit skills or provide fresh employment opportunities within the group.
Service and product of the partner airlines, in the air and on the ground, is increasingly being aligned as part of a strategy to offer customers a seamless, high quality product across Etihad Airways Partners.
Loyalty programmes are also interconnected between the airlines of Etihad Airways Partners.
Etihad Airways Group has established the Global Loyalty Company, which owns the Etihad Guest programme and majority stakes in airberlin’s topbonus, Alitalia’s MilleMiglia and the Jet Privilege programme of Jet Airways.
Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Etihad Regional have all adopted the Etihad Guest programme, while NIKI uses topbonus.
Alitalia and airberlin are also introducing the same Business Class service and product as Etihad Airways, initially on long haul aircraft, and many more opportunities for collaboration are being explored by all of the Etihad Airways Partners airlines for both passenger and air cargo services.