Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways enters into agreement with UK’s easyJet

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has partnered with Britain’s low-cost carrier easyJet to enable customers to purchase tickets through the easyJet global website connecting the two airlines’ networks.

The partnership will allow users to book tickets on the easyJet website from 68 cities on the airline’s network in Europe to Abu Dhabi, further on connecting to Etihad Airways flights from 10 European gateways in Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Rome, Geneva, Madrid, Manchester, Milan Malpensa, and Zurich, a statement said.

Both airlines intend to build on the partnership to include more destinations going forward.

The collaboration comes into effect immediately.

The move comes after easyJet’s roll out programme with flight comparison search engine, Dohop, which powers the easyJet worldwide website, connecting its European network with long-haul flights, the statement said.

Etihad has achieved this using the NDC (new distribution capability) platform providing technical capability for new partnerships. The alliance with easyJet and Dohop is Etihad’s first use of this technology.

Etihad intends to gain momentum and add more airlines and travel partners to their NDC portfolio in 2020.

Ali Saleh, Etihad Airways vice president Alliances and Partnerships, said: “easyJet is a perfect launch partner for us in Europe, allowing us to reliably increase the breadth of our continental reach to and from Abu Dhabi, as we enhance ways of connecting directly with more airlines and travel partners around the world.

“The ability to provide end-to-end booking capabilities through our NDC platform will provide customers with ‘one stop’ solutions for seamless travel with partners, whether legacy or low-cost, through Etihad’s global gateways.”

“We’re excited to announce our partnership with Etihad Airways, which opens up Abu Dhabi as a destination to our passengers and more of Europe to Etihad,” said Rachel Smith, easyJet’s head of commercial partnerships.

“Through smart self-connections and strategic partnerships, we continue to extend the reach of the worldwide by easyJet network offering more value and more routes to more customers.”

In 2019, Etihad Aviation Group announced the launch of a new low-cost airline, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, in partnership with Sharjah-based Air Arabia.

Read more: Etihad, Air Arabia to launch Abu Dhabi’s first low-cost carrier

In Q4 2019, Etihad Airways and Kuwait Airways signed a codeshare partnership on selected services on bookings starting from December 22, 2019, for travel from January 5, 2020.

Also read: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways, Kuwait Airways sign new codeshare deal