Etihad and South African Airlines form a Strategic Partnership

Etihad and  South African Airways are expanding their other reaches it seems with a new partnership agreement.

The agreement will initially cover codeshares on flights, as well as the option to examine options on joint procurement, training and maintenance.

Etihad will place its EY code on SAA flights from Johannesburg to ten region destinations covering South Africa, Africa and South America, whilst South African Airways will put its SA code on 12 of Etihad’s global routes.

There’s good news for members Etihad Guest and South African Airlines Voyager frequent flyer programmes will be able  to earn points through a reciprocal arrangement.

So.. this is familiar isn’t it? This is the second African continent area deal done by Etihad – as they also have also codeshared with Kenya Airways.

Etihad has been busy building partnerships (as opposed to joining an alliance), and has also swallowed bits of other airlines including Air Berlin, Air Seychelles, Aer Lingus, Jet Airways and Virgin Australia. There are also partnerships with the Air France-KLM group, Kenya Airways and numerous other code-shares.