Air Serbia and Etihad extend commercial partnership
Air Serbia and Etihad Airways will be extending their partnership despite the Emirati carrier recently reducing its ownership stake in the Serbian airline. The two have renewed and expanded their wide-ranging codeshare agreement, while Etihad ha said it will continue to work closely with the Serbian airline. The expansion of the codeshare partnership comes after the agreement seemed all but certain to end following Etihad’s exit from the Serbian market. Air Serbia has now placed its designator code and flight numbers onto Etihad’s services from Paris, Zurich, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi, while it has extended its codeshare on Etihad flights from Abu Dhabi to Manama, Bangkok, Colombo, Dammam, Riyadh, Jeddah, Seoul, Karachi, Lahore, Kuwait, Muscat, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne. The agreement now counts over thirty routes.
Following the recapitalisation of Air Serbia valued at 100 million euros, the Serbian state now owns 82% of the airline, while Etihad continues to hold 18%. The Emirati airline said, “The recapitalisation of the Serbian national airline was undertaken at the request of Air Serbia. We are pleased the Serbian government has reinvested in the future of the airline. Etihad continues to work closely with Air Serbia, while we respond to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 crisis on our own business”. The two airlines will continue to share a mutual frequent flyer programme – Etihad Guest.
The strategic partnership agreement between Etihad Airways and the Serbian government, unveiled in August 2013, saw the Emirati airline make available a forty million US dollar loan facility to Air Serbia which was converted into equity on January 1, 2014 for a period of five years. The five-year deal was later extended until further notice, however, Etihad’s involvement in Air Serbia has been significantly reduced, with the state providing subsidies and funds for the airline over the past few years. Air Serbia and Air Seychelles are now the only two remaining members of the Etihad Partners group, with the latter facing significant issues as a result of a loan arranged by Etihad from a group of international investors. The Serbian carrier settled one of the two loans from the funding vehicle last year.
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