Etihad Airways eyes alliance with Italy's Alitalia

Etihad Airways is engaged in due diligence with a “couple” of Indian airlines, with a view to acquiring a stake, and is also considering an alliance with Italy’s Alitalia, the carrier's CEO told Bloomberg.

However, the Abu Dhabi-based airline is likely to halt its string of equity investments in the near future, James Hogan said.

“There isn’t a shopping list… Maybe there are one or two more deals we’ll do here, but what I can’t do is something that bogs my management team down. We don’t control those airlines, so we have to be convinced of their strategy,” Hogan told Bloomberg.

The Abu Dhabi airline currently holds minority stakes in a number of international carriers, including airberlin, Virgin Australia, Aer Lingus and Air Seychelles. In October it also signed a codeshare agreement with Air France-KLM as part of the first phase of a larger strategic partnership.

While Hogan said the carrier was not seeking a stake in Air France-KLM, he confirmed that an alliance with Italy’s Alitalia, in which Air France-KLM owns a stake, “is on the agenda”.

“A relationship with Air France-KLM, Alitalia, combined with airberlin and Aer Lingus, that’s pretty powerful coming over the Gulf down to southeast Asia and Australasia,” Hogan was quoted as saying.

India is currently on Hogan’s equity target list and he confirmed his management team is currently engaged in due diligence with a “couple” of Indian airlines and an announcement was likely “in a couple of weeks”.

Last month, an Indian government official confirmed the Abu Dhabi carrier was in talks with Jet Airways to acquire a stake, which has been valued at around INR16bn (US$290m), an official told Bloomberg.

In October, Etihad announced that third-quarter revenue was up 19 percent to US$1.3bn, boosted by a 51 percent surge in income from its 38 codeshare and airline partners.

With the number of passengers carried jumping 23 percent year-on-year to 2.79m and the average seat factor rising to a record 81.2 percent, the UAE national carrier said it was confident of achieving full-year profitability for the second year running.

"Our third quarter saw continued progress across the business, with all key indicators showing strong performance and we remain confident of delivering full-year profitability based on current market conditions,” Hogan said.

Revenue from Etihad’s 38 codeshare partners, which represented 18 percent of its total passenger revenue in the quarter, rose 51 percent to US$182m.

"We are particularly pleased with the contribution from our codeshare and equity partners. This component of our strategy is delivering a strong and growing revenue stream, complementing our own double-digit organic growth," Hogan added.