Qantas axes Etihad codeshare agreement
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Aussie flag carrier Qantas has axed its code-share agreement with Etihad Airways after Virgin Blue announced a major alliance with the Abu Dhabi-based airline.Qantas had been codesharing flights between Australia and Abu Dhabi, providing the Middle Eastern carrier with the opportunity to feed passengers onto Qantas’ domestic network. Etihad has similarly been able to take passengers onwards to other of its destinations in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.But this arrangement has been ditched following the Virgin Blue and Etihad deal in which all flights on both carriers will be code-shared allowing seamless travel across both airlines’ networks, subject to regulatory sign-off in each country.The deal by default makes Virgin Blue an international carrier with some 65 offshore cities joining its route map. At the same time it gives Etihad the ability to feed travellers from its network to every major Australian city.That deal dwarfs the arrangement between Etihad and Qantas and the latter gave notice of terminating the agreement the same day the Virgin Blue deal was announced. It now has no service to the Middle East other than a OneWorld arrangement with Royal Jordanian.
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