Etihad wins injunction to continue airberlin codeshare flights

airberlin is currently partly owned by Etihad Airways, the second-largest airline in the UAE, who hold a 29.2% stake in the German carrier. Etihad’s investment in the airline allowed them to create a beneficial codesharing agreement for a number of flights which cover Europe, the USA and the UAE. However the new codeshare agreement had not been approved for the IATA winter season commencing October 25th, running through to March 30th.
As a consequence Etihad have succeeded in obtaining an injunction from a German court to allow the codesharing agreement to continue up until November 8th. This should allow sufficient time to resolve differences through continued consultation between the UAE and the Federal Republic of Germany governments, Etihad confirmed. In the meantime both carriers will continue to honor all flights and all current passenger arrangements will not alter.
Proposals for the new codeshare agreement were put to the German government for approval back in April this year and the lack of approval had left Etihad with no option but to seek an injunction. They made it very clear they wanted to “protect the German carrier’s 8,000 employees and provide passengers who have booked more than 82,000 journeys with clarity and confidence.”
Etihad President and CEO, James Hogan, is reported as saying: “The failure by the German government to approve the codeshares in time, would severely, and possibly terminally, damage airberlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, of which Etihad Airways owns 29.2%. The codeshare routes in question, including flights to our hub in Abu Dhabi, were among 65 previously approved by Germany’s civil aviation authority, the LBA, and a key reason that we invested in airberlin.
“Since 2012, our codeshare partnership has enabled more than 2 million passengers to connect between the networks of both airlines, and contributed 252 million euros to airberlin’s earnings. Etihad Airways has delivered 1,365,487 passengers to airberlin, while airberlin connected 645,157 passengers onto flights operated by Etihad Airways,” Hogan said.