The strategic tie-up between Etihad Airways and Australia's Virgin Blue Group is being hailed by analysts as a near seamless fit and a boost for the Abu Dhabi airline in one of its most important countries for traffic.
The alliance includes V Australia, the long-haul arm of Virgin Blue, which on Thursday flew its Boeing 777-300ER wide-bodied airliner into the UAE capital, marking the first Australian service into the Middle East for two decades.
"When United Airline and Continental of the US were talking about merging it was said this was a marriage made in heaven, with few overlaps and total complementarity," said Peter Harbison, the executive chairman of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, an aviation analyst. "There are similarities with Etihad and Virgin Blue."
The Etihad deal allows both airlines to use the other to feed traffic into their network. Etihad passengers can now book journeys to their final destinations across Australia, New Zealand or the Pacific Islands on Virgin Blue flights via the Etihad website.
Virgin Blue customers will also be able to take advantage of Etihad's global network and book journeys on one ticket to points in the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
"Both carriers will see this as a way to strengthen and build a position which they might not otherwise do alone," said John Strickland, the director of JLS Consulting in the UK.
John Borghetti, the chief executive of Virgin Blue, said buying its own planes to fly these routes would have cost it about US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn). "Had we gone out and decided to fly those routes on our own with an equivalent amount of capacity [to the joint venture] we would have had to buy, depending on the aircraft size, between 30 and 50 aircraft," he said.
The deal will also help Virgin Blue appeal to business travellers, a market it is trying to enter as it repositions from a budget airline aimed at leisure traffic into a full-service carrier to rival Qantas.
The tie-up between the Abu Dhabi airline and Virgin Blue, which was first brokered in August, caused a chain reaction within the industry: Etihad ended its code-share deal with Qantas while Emirates Airline ended a similar arrangement with Virgin Blue.
Etihad had initially planned a similar far-reaching deal with Qantas. It was Mr Borghetti, while he was a senior executive at Qantas in 2008, who negotiated the deal with Etihad's chief executive, James Hogan. But soon after, Qantas restructured its business plan and cancelled plans to fly into Abu Dhabi.
When Mr Borghetti left Qantas last year to head up Virgin Blue, he and Mr Hogan resurrected the plans. "I spoke with John Borghetti, after he'd been at Virgin Blue for a month, and I asked 'do you want to do that deal we did at the other place?' And he said 'yes,' so we met the next weekend in Singapore."
A month later, the two airlines announced their strategic alliance.
Etihad has lent its marketing muscle to promote the tie-up, which should help the Abu Dhabi carrier raise the number of travellers it flies in and out of Australia this year by 100,000, taking the total to 550,000. The deal comes at a crucial time when the seven-year old Etihad is pushing to reach its break-even financial mark.
Helicopters trailing huge banners of Etihad and V Australia buzzed overhead in Sydney on Wednesday. Later that evening, the Australian singer and actress Dannii Minogue was the emcee as Etihad hosted several hundred guests at a reception celebrating the launch of the airline partnership.
[ igale@thenational.ae ]
Tottenham's 10 biggest transfers (according to transfermarkt.com):
1). Moussa Sissokho - Newcastle United - £30 million (Dh143m): Flop
2). Roberto Soldado - Valencia - £25m: Flop
3). Erik Lamela - Roma - £25m: Jury still out
4). Son Heung-min - Bayer Leverkusen - £25m: Success
5). Darren Bent - Charlton Athletic - £21m: Flop
6). Vincent Janssen - AZ Alkmaar - £18m: Flop
7). David Bentley - Blackburn Rovers - £18m: Flop
8). Luka Modric - Dynamo Zagreb - £17m: Success
9). Paulinho - Corinthians - £16m: Flop
10). Mousa Dembele - Fulham - £16m: Success
TWISTERS
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Starring: Glenn Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos
Rating: 2.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qureos
Based: UAE
Launch year: 2021
Number of employees: 33
Sector: Software and technology
Funding: $3 million
Sam Smith
Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi
When: Saturday November 24
Rating: 4/5
SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder
Power: 101hp
Torque: 135Nm
Transmission: Six-speed auto
Price: From Dh79,900
On sale: Now
Company Profile
Name: Direct Debit System
Started: Sept 2017
Based: UAE with a subsidiary in the UK
Industry: FinTech
Funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Elaine Jones
Number of employees: 8
Director: Nag Ashwin
Starring: Prabhas, Saswata Chatterjee, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Shobhana
Rating: ★★★★
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
MATCH INFO
FA Cup final
Chelsea 1
Hazard (22' pen)
Manchester United 0
Man of the match: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Company Profile
Name: HyveGeo
Started: 2023
Founders: Abdulaziz bin Redha, Dr Samsurin Welch, Eva Morales and Dr Harjit Singh
Based: Cambridge and Dubai
Number of employees: 8
Industry: Sustainability & Environment
Funding: $200,000 plus undisclosed grant
Investors: Venture capital and government
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
Bharatanatyam
A ancient classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Intricate footwork and expressions are used to denote spiritual stories and ideas.
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m
Winner: Arjan, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer).
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: Jap Nazaa, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi.
6pm: Al Ruwais Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 1,200m
Winner: RB Lam Tara, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinal.
6.30pm: Shadwell Gold Cup Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Sanad, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
7pm: Shadwell Farm Stallions Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Patrick Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
7.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Dubai Canal, Harry Bentley, Satish Seemar.
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Omania, Saif Al Balushi (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer)
5.30pm: Conditions (PA) Dh85,000 1,600m
Winner: Brehaan, Richard Mullen, Ana Mendez
6pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 1,600m
Winner: Craving, Connor Beasley, Simon Crisford
6.30pm: The President’s Cup Prep (PA) Dh100,000 2,200m
Winner: Rmmas, Tadhg O’Shea, Jean de Roualle
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Dh70,000 1,200m
Winner: Dahess D’Arabie, Connor Beasley, Helal Al Alawi
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m
Winner: Fertile De Croate, Sam Hitchcott, Ibrahim Aseel
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 3
Danilo (16'), Bernardo Silva (34'), Fernandinho (72')
Brighton & Hove Albion 1
Ulloa (20')
Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
The view from The National
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: OneOrder
Started: March 2022
Founders: Tamer Amer and Karim Maurice
Based: Cairo
Number of staff: 82
Investment stage: Series A
Where the Crawdads Sing
Director: Olivia Newman
Stars: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson, David Strathairn
Rating: 2/5
STAGE 4 RESULTS
1 Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 4:51:51
2 David Dekker (NED) Team Jumbo-Visma
3 Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal
4 Elia Viviani (ITA) Cofidis
5 Matteo Moschetti (ITA) Trek-Segafredo
General Classification
1 Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 12:50:21
2 Adam Yates (GBR) Teamn Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:43
3 Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:03
4 Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:43
5 Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre supercharged V8
Power: 712hp at 6,100rpm
Torque: 881Nm at 4,800rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 19.6 l/100km
Price: Dh380,000
On sale: now