Australia and UAE sign new air services agreement

Australia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed (12-Feb-2010) an expanded bilateral air services agreement, under which UAE airlines may operate up to an additional seven services per week into Australia's major gateway airports (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth), provided these services operate via a regional port, such as Cairns, Darwin or Adelaide. As well as the previously agreed seven extra services per week from Mar-2010, Etihad Airways will be entitled to a further seven frequencies from Mar-2011. At present, the airline operates 21 services per week to/from Australia. Etihad is reportedly considering launching services to Adelaide to utilise the frequencies to be made available from Mar-2011 (TravelToday, 15-Feb-2010). Existing arrangements allowing Emirates an extra seven weekly services from Mar-2010 and a further seven from Mar-2011 were confirmed, building on the 70 weekly services Emirates currently operates. Air Arabia will also be entitled to operate up to seven services per week from Mar-2011. Reciprocal capacity increases were agreed for Australian airlines. [more]