RIYADH: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, and Saudi national flag carrier, Saudi Arabian Airlines, announced positive growth in traffic since their codeshare partnership began in November 2018.

Jointly, Etihad and Saudia have flown over 16,000 guests across the partnership, solidifying the airlines’ commitment to growing inbound business and tourism in their respective markets.

Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group said, “The close and expanding partnership between Etihad and Saudia is giving us a unique opportunity to build on the deep ties that exist between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As the national airline of the UAE, this is a role we are extremely proud to play.

“With greater choice now available, more flexibility across both our schedules and world-leading products and services, together, we now fly approximately 150 guests per day across each other’s networks. Our plan is to grow this number considerably through expansion of the codeshare agreement in the coming months, and to deliver more benefits to our customers.”

The codeshare agreement has seen ‘EY’ and ‘SV’ codes already placed on 14 routes with the addition of Vienna this week. In the coming months, Etihad will place its ‘EY’ code on, Tunis, Sharm El Sheikh and Alexandria. At the same time, Saudia will place its ‘SV’ code on Etihad flights to Tokyo, Nagoya, and Baku. Phase two for the ‘EY’ code will include Algiers, Dhaka and Erbil.

Phase two for the ‘SV’ code will include Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Moscow, Dusseldorf, Hong Kong, Kathmandu, Lagos, Minsk, Rabat, Astana, and more points in India.

WAM