Garuda Indonesia has added several new destinations to its codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways.
The Indonesian national carrier will now place its ‘GA’ code on Etihad’s flights to five new cities – Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bahrain and Brussels – bringing the total number of codeshare destinations to 10. In return, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad will place its ‘EY’ code is now on Garuda’s flights between Jakarta and Singapore, Bali, Manado, Surabaya, Balikpapan and Makassar, and between Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam.
The alliance will expand further from 21 June this year, when Garuda increases the frequency of its Jakarta-Abu Dhabi-Amsterdam service four to six flights weekly.
Also from this date, Etihad will re-time its flights between Jakarta and Abu Dhabi to offer improved connection times to several destinations, including Istanbul, Moscow, Johannesburg, New York, Chicago and Toronto.
“The partnership between Etihad Airways and Garuda Indonesia continues to develop in a mutually beneficial way, adding new destinations, improving connectivity, and offering new customer benefits,” said James Hogan, Etihad’s President & CEO. “Connection times to many popular destinations have been reduced to under three hours.”
Etihad’s relationship with Garuda will also help it expand in Australia, following the launch of the Indonesian carrier’s new Jakarta-Perth service this summer. And Hogan revealed that this would “pave the way for [Etihad] to enter the market in its own right within the next two to three years”.
Also included in this next phase of Australian expansion, Etihad has unveiled plans to increase capacity to Melbourne. The airline will upgrade its daily Abu Dhabi-Melbourne route to a new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from 1 December 2013. The three-class, 328-seat aircraft will replace the current Airbus A340 operating the route, delivering 12% more weekly seats than at present
“Melbourne is one of the best-performing routes in our global network, and has the highest passenger load factor of our three Australian destinations,” said Hogan. “Victorians are not only flying with Etihad Airways to Abu Dhabi, an emerging business and leisure destination, but also on to destinations in the Gulf region, Middle East, Europe and Africa.”
Etihad currently operates 13 Boeing 777s and will add a further five this year.
