Why traveling from Australia is about to get easier

Australia's second-largest airline Virgin Blue has announced a major tie-up with a Middle Eastern carrier as it tries to compete with flag-carrier Qantas in global reach.

Virgin Blue announced August 26 that its international brand Virgin Australia will partner with Abu Dhabi-based Etihad to reach a network of over 100 destinations, becoming the first Australian carrier to operate to the Middle East since 1991.

Eventually, the partnership will see 27 flights every week between Australia and Etihad's Abu Dhabi hub, enabling passengers to join onward Etihad flights booked on a single ticket from Virgin Australia.

Etihad's network covers a total of 65 destinations, both long and short haul, in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Virgin Blue boss John Borghetti described the deal as a "real game changer."

“Everybody wins from this partnership," he said, adding that "it increases competition, choice and convenience for the travelling public."

Aviation analyst the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) agreed, pointing out that the deal was more comprehensive for travelers than the Qantas-British Airways agreement on the popular "Kangaroo" route between London and Australia.

"The great advantage of a tie-up with Etihad is the wide range of one-stop points which will become available to Virgin Blue-Etihad customers – whereas Qantas-BA services all fly via London, making continental destinations more time consuming," said CAPA.

"Qantas offers a daily one-stop to Frankfurt, but that is the carrier’s only continental European operation."

http://www.virginblue.com.au
http://www.centreforaviation.com