Etihad Airways and Garuda Indonesia have announced a number of new codeshare destinations in Indonesia, Europe, the Middle East, Singapore and Australia. The Abu Dhabi-based airline’s ‘EY’ code is now on Garuda Indonesia flights between Jakarta and Singapore, Denpasar Bali, Manado, Surabaya, Balikpapan and Makassar and between Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam. Garuda Indonesia has also placed its ‘GA’ code on Etihad Airways’ flights to five new cities – Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bahrain and Brussels – bringing the total number of codeshare destinations to ten.
Etihad Airways and Garuda Indonesia customers will benefit further from June 21 this year when Garuda Indonesia increases frequency between Jakarta and Abu Dhabi and onwards to Amsterdam from four to six flights weekly. This will bring to 13 the total number of weekly flights between the capital cities of Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In another significant move, from June 21, 2013, Etihad Airways will re-time its flights between Jakarta and Abu Dhabi to offer seamless connectivity to and from even more destinations in the airline’s global network. This will include Amman, Basra, Erbil, and Kuwait in the Middle East; Athens, Istanbul and Larnaca in southern Europe; Astana, Almaty, Moscow and Minsk in eastern Europe; Nairobi and Johannesburg in Africa; and Sao Paulo, Washington, New York JFK, Chicago and Toronto in the Americas.
Also in June, Garuda Indonesia will commence services between Jakarta and Perth, which will be operated with the ‘EY’ code. These flights will be timed to connect with services to and from Abu Dhabi, giving customers of both airlines in the Middle East, Europe and beyond new access to Western Australia.
“The partnership between Etihad Airways and Garuda Indonesia continues to develop in a mutually beneficial way, adding new destinations, improving connectivity, and offering new customer benefits,” said James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways. “Connection times to many popular destinations have been reduced to under three hours. We also offer the fastest route from Jakarta to popular destinations like Manchester, Geneva and Brussels.”
Mr Hogan highlighted the strategic importance of the four new codeshare destinations in Indonesia. “The new points on the domestic network give us unprecedented access to more than six million potential Indonesian travelers and provide opportunities for deeper commercial ties to the oil, gas and mining industries in the region. The codeshare with Garuda Indonesia to Perth continues our expansion in Australia. It will further strengthen the Etihad Airways brand presence in Western Australia and pave the way for the airline to enter the market in its own right within the next two to three years,” he added.
Garuda Indonesia President and Chief Executive Officer, Emirsyah Satar, welcomed the extended network of the codeshare agreement. “The codeshare with Etihad is part of our effort to continuously improve our service to our customers by giving them the easy connectivity from Indonesia to more than 80 cities in 50 countries that are served by Etihad. In line with our ‘Quantum Leap 2011 – 2015’ program especially our network expansion program, as well as opening some destinations with its own resources, Garuda Indonesia will also add some destinations to its network through the codeshare agreement and alliance,” he said.
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