Air Seychelles and Etihad expand codeshare

Air Seychelles recently announced an expansion of its codeshare partnership with Etihad Airways, for travel to Kuwait over Abu Dhabi.

The newly-added codeshare destination will see Air Seychelles and Etihad offer 10 return flights per week from Kuwait to the Seychelles, including a daily service. Air Seychelles will place its HM code on Etihad flights between Kuwait and Abu Dhabi.

With this latest addition, Air Seychelles now offers codeshare flights to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Oman for a collective 55 return services per week to the Gulf region. The new codeshare flights can be booked online, through its call centre (+248 4 38 10 13), at the airline’s sales offices, or through a travel agency.

KQ to Increase Botswana Flights

According to gazettebw, Kenya Airways has taken the decision to increase the number of their flights from Nairobi to Gaborone by two, due to increased demand.
That’s because KQ has realised good growth on the route. “The introduction of the night flight to Gaborone comes as the airline aims to meet the rising demand for travel between the two cities,” said KQ Country Manager Juliet Zintambila.
The Kenya Airways network was recently expanded with three new destinations; Livingstone in Zambia, Blantyre in Malawi and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The new flight departs Gaborone at 00h50 and lands in Nairobi at 06h00.
 It will be serviced by the narrow body mid-range twin engine Embraer E190. Zintambila added that KQ has ambitions to fly directly to Maun and Francistown, and is currently assessing the feasibility.

KQ to Begin Abu Dhabi Flights in July

According to gulfbusiness.com, Kenya Airways will begin three-times weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and Nairobi from 2 July.
 Flights are scheduled to depart the UAE capital at 19h25 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The service, on B737-800 aircraft, will be operated in conjunction with Etihad, following the signing of a reciprocal codeshare agreement in February. 
Kenya Airways is already placing its KQ code on Etihad’s daily service from Nairobi to Abu Dhabi, whilst Etihad is placing its EY code on Kenya Airways flights from Nairobi to 27 destinations across KQ’s African network.

Air France-KLM, Etihad and Airberlin Join Forces

Air France-KLM, Etihad Airways and airberlin have agreed on a new commercial partnership. As of 28 October, the airlines will offer their customers more destinations, thanks to mutual code-share agreements. On the routes between Europe and Abu Dhabi, Etihad customers will be able to fly on the Amsterdam-Abu Dhabi daily flight operated by KLM. Air France customers will be able to travel every day between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Abu Dhabi, on Etihad-operated flights.
 Beyond their gateways, this code-share agreement offers five destinations each to Air France and KLM passengers on the Asian and Australian market, and 10 European destinations to Etihad passengers on Air France and KLM. Air France passengers will be able to connect through Abu Dhabi for flights to Colombo, Dhaka, Katmandu (subject to government approval), Mahe, and Male. KLM passengers will be able to connect through Abu Dhabi for flights to Colombo, Islamabad, Lahore, Melbourne and Sydney.
Etihad passengers will be able to connect through Paris-CDG for flights to Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Madrid, Nice and Toulouse, on an Air France-operated flight, and through Amsterdam-Schiphol to Billund, Cardiff, Newcastle, Oslo, and Stavanger, on a KLM-operated flight. Further to that, Air France and airberlin customers will be able to fly on all the routes operated by the other between France and Germany. Passengers will also be able to connect to some selected destinations via Paris for airberlin, and via Berlin or Düsseldorf for Air France.
 Air France passengers will be able to connect through Berlin-Tegel airport to Krakow, Gdansk, Graz, and from Düsseldorf to Dresden, on services operated by airberlin. Airberlin passengers will be able to transfer through Paris-CDG and Paris-Orly to Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, and Toulouse, on services operated by Air France. Additionally, KLM and airberlin will co-operate on routes between the Netherlands and Germany. KLM will code-share with airberlin on three destinations beyond Berlin, namely Krakow, Gdansk and Kaliningrad. Airberlin will code-share on Berlin-Amsterdam routes as well as on Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester, beyond Amsterdam.

Etihad Increases Service

Etihad Airways will increase its services to Casablanca, to provide daily flights from 28 March, 2013. Etihad currently flies five times a week between Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, and in June celebrated the seventh anniversary of operations to the Moroccan capital.
The daily service will support traffic growth between Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, and connecting traffic to many popular onward destinations, including Jeddah, and a choice of Asian cities such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila, and Sydney in Australia.
The additional services will improve the connectivity in Abu Dhabi by 50%. The daily service will also strengthen connectivity with codeshare partner, Royal Air Maroc, allowing Etihad Airways passengers more choice to connect to domestic Moroccan destinations and other points in West Africa.
Etihad Airways operates a three cabin A330-300 aircraft between Abu Dhabi and Casablanca, configured to carry eight passengers in Diamond First Class, 32 passengers in Pearl Business Class, and 191 passengers in Coral Economy Class.

Etihad Continues African Expansion

Etihad Airways has announced the launch of flights to Lagos, Nigeria, from the 1^st of July. Lagos will be the airline’s first destination in West Africa, subject to regulatory approvals.

The direct flights will link Abu Dhabi and Lagos six times a week and will be operated by a two class A330-200 aircraft, with 22 Pearl Business class and 240 Coral Economy seats.

Lagos becomes the 83^rd destination in Etihad Airways’ global network and the return flights will create a new link between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

Following the launch of services to the Seychelles in November 2011, Tripoli last month and Nairobi in April, the addition of Nigeria marks another milestone in Etihad Airways’ African expansion plans. “The UAE is a major trade partner of Nigeria, which has a population of more than 150 million people, the largest in Africa and the seventh biggest in the world,” said James Hogan, Etihad Airways President and CEO. “The country is rich in natural resources, such as oil and natural gas.

Our new point-to-point services will strengthen the oil and gas links between the UAE and Nigeria, and facilitate further growth in these industries. The country is also enjoying strong economic growth, driven by significant foreign investment, particularly from China, which means there is increasing demand for travel between Lagos and other emerging economies. The Lagos schedule will provide seamless connections over Abu Dhabi to key north and south-east Asian destinations and markets in the Indian sub-continent and Australia.”