Some Air Berlin-Etihad Codesharing Voided
Jeff Edwards December 30, 2015
A German court has ruled that some Etihad and Air Berlin codeshare routes exceed the limits of an aviation agreement between Germany and the United Arab Emirates.
Etihad Airways owns a nearly 30 percent stake in Air Berlin, but there are some limits on how closely the Gulf carrier and Germany’s second largest airline are allowed to cooperate. An administrative judge in Braunschweig, Germany has ruled that a previous aviation agreement between Germany and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) supersedes some codesharing agreements between the two airlines.
According to a USA Today report, regulators gave the two carriers until January 15, 2016 to find a solution to the apparent conflict with the previously negotiated treaty. Etihad instead went to the German court in hopes of extending that grace period until new timetables were scheduled to be released in October, but the judge ruled against the airlines, which will now have to end codesharing on 31 routes before the end of January. The judge’s ruling does not affect about 50 codeshare agreements between Etihad and Air Berlin deemed in compliance with the aviation agreement between the two countries.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Etihad officials have vowed to appeal the decision, saying the airline was “deeply disappointed” by the court’s ruling. “The social and economic damage to Germany by this decision is significant,” Etihad said in a statement released on Wednesday. The statement went on to say that an appeal could be filed as soon as next week.
[Photo: Air Journal]
There is already a way to bypass code-sharing, they simply need to allow ticketing to each others flights in the routing and ticketing rules for applicable city pairs.
Well as long as the flag carrier is allowed to provide all high ranked politicians and judges with Star Gold card,appealing within Germany won't help all that much. And a decision from Strasbourg is far, far away. It may be easier to invent a new term that means nearly the same as codeshare to bypass the ruling for the foreseeable future.