From enemies to partners
EL AL Israel Airlines and Etihad Airways, the national airlines of Israel and the UAE respectively, are ready to explore deeper cooperation following the signing of a virtual memorandum of understanding.
The wide-ranging MoU, which was signed "virtually" by Tony Douglas (left), group CEO of Etihad Aviation Group, and EL AL CEO Gonen Usishkin, covers scope to introduce joint codeshare services between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, as well as on the global flight networks beyond the two carriers’ hubs.
Both carriers’ engineering and cargo divisions are also set to begin talks about greater cooperation. These discussions would look at optimising MRO opportunities and ways to increase volumes of freighter traffic flowing into and out of Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv, and across the carriers’ combined networks. (ah)