Things in the Sky

Soon after announcing an enhanced partnership with Skyteam parter Aeroflot, Alitalia has announced a codeshare agreement with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, helping Alitalia build its international network while giving Etihad better access to European markets.

Alitalia has been slowly working build its international routes back up (i.e. coming back to Los Angeles…again), but there are still plenty of holes. The main link for the partnership is Etihad’s route from Abu Dhabi to Milan, which gives Alitalia’s customers better access to some international destinations that have gone missing from Alitalia’s route map, such as Bangkok, Johannesburg, Melbourne, and Sydney.

Etihad will be placing its code on flights from Milan to Naples and Rome, two destinations that the airline does not serve. Unfortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of connecting opportunities out of Milan – so Etihad will be placing its code on flights from Rome to places like Frankfurt, Geneva, and Munich. I’m not sure how many passengers would fly AUH-MXP-FCO-FRA, though, considering that Etihad flies to Frankfurt nonstop already.

This partnership is good for both airlines – giving Alitalia access to markets it had to drop, and gives some nice additional feed for Etihad’s Milan flight.

Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich90/ / CC BY-ND 2.0