Etihad Airways and Virgin Australia confirm plans to increase partnership

Etihad Airways confirmed plans to enhance its partnership with Virgin Australia (The National, 11-Jun-2018). Etihad Airways CEO Peter Baumgartner advised the partnership continues to see strong commercial benefits and is therefore holding discussions to boost the partnership. Mr Baumgartner, said: "Together we continue to explore areas of potential expansion for both strategic and operational synergies". Virgin Australia Group CEO Rob Sharp commented on the enhanced partnership on the sidelines of the 2018 IATA AGM, stating: "We were talking about things we can do to continue to enhance that relationship. For us, the demand from Australia over to Abu Dhabi, and likewise back, is strong, the relationship is very sound".