Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Aviation Group has approved plans for its proposed joint venture with TUI to create a new European leisure airline group.
With a fleet of around 60 aircraft, the new airline group plans to offer capacity of 15 million seats per year.
Etihad Aviation Group, the holding company for the Abu Dhabi carrier, said that, the leisure airline group will be supported by the expertise of Etihad Aviation Group, the fastest growing aviation group in the world, and utilise TUI’s state-of-the-art distribution capacity.
The new airline company will be headquartered in Austria and will have a fleet of approximately 60 aircraft to travel from Swiss, German and Austrian markets to a broad network of destinations, including the Canaries, mainland Greece, and Spain and the Balearics, Etihad said.
Etihad emphasized Monday that it would own just 25% of the new airline group, while TUI would own 24.8% and the majority 50.2% would be held by the Austrian foundation Niki Privatstiftung.
The working title for the project is “Blue Sky” — which was also the name used by British Airways while it was developing its low-cost offshoot, Go.
With 60 aircraft, it will be one of the largest budget airlines in Europe, alongside Ryanair, easyJet, Vueling, Norwegian and Wizz Air.
Around half the aircraft will be Boeing 737s from the TUI fleet. It will also use 737s belonging to Air Berlin, the loss-making carrier part-owned by Etihad.
The two firms said they aim “to create a strong European leisure airline group, focused on point-to-point flying to connect key tourist markets”.
The airline consultant John Strickland described the venture as, a bit late into the low-cost space but if they stick to the German home market where the TUI brand has strength for consumers they can probably survive.
