Etihad Airways has applied to a German court for an injunction to protect its codeshare flights with airberlin.
The UAE airline said the legal action taken today was also to ‘help protect the German carrier’s 8,000 employees’ and to ‘provide passengers with clarity and confidence’.
Etihad Airways owns 29.2% of airberlin, Germany’s second-largest airline.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline said it couldn’t wait any longer for the government to decide whether to approved its codeshare with airberlin on flights to 29 cities in Europe, the US and the United Arab Emirates.
These flights cover the winter 2015/16 schedule, which is due to begin in two days, covering the five months until March 31.
"In the absence of any decision from German authorities — who have approved seven Etihad Airways schedules, including all of the codeshares with airberlin since 2012 — the airline was left with no alternative but to file a pre-emptive injunction with the Administrative Court of Braunschweig," said an Etihad spokesman.
