It seems today is “talk about Etihad day” as they announce a a “strategic partnership” with Kenya Airways.
The partnership will involve codeshared services and a new service between Nairobi and Abu Dhabi to be operated by Kenya Airways 3 times a week in addition to Etihads current service.
Etihad will have 27 extra destinations covered by Kenya Airways (and the EY flight code applied to these flight) for destinations in Africa. Meanwhile, Etihad will apply Kenya Airways KQ code on 32 destinations from Abu Dhabi for access to the Far East, Asia and the Indian sub-continent.
For Etihad – it’s an easy way to get further into the African market. Meanwhile, for Kenya Airways its more seats to sell with a carrier that is making a lot of friends.
How many codeshare partners? 42 so far.
The codeshare sales begin on 15th March 2013, for flying from 1st April 2013.
Kenya Airways use Flying Blue as its frequent flyer programme, and will align their version of it with Etihad Guest – with earn and redeem options.
More options and more partnerships. Whilst Etihad is aligning itself with numerous SkyTeam programmes as well as the odd oneworld member, this could another push towards an Etihad centric alliance.
However, this also reminds me of Swissair and its Hunter Strategy – where the airline grow its market share through the acquisition of small airlines rather than entering into alliance agreements – and it expanded beyond its means.
The fate of Swissair as we all know wasn’t pleasant in the end…