Air France-KLM and Etihad seem to be ending their partnership in a pretty drastic way. I’m curious what happened in the background to cause this…
In this post:
Air France-KLM & Etihad end their cooperation
Air France-KLM and Etihad have had a partnership in some form or another dating back as far as 2012. Initially it was just an interline agreement, with a limited codeshare partnership. Then in late 2023, we saw Air France-KLM and Etihad drastically expand their collaboration.
With this, an expanded codeshare agreement was formalized, frequent flyer reciprocity was introduced, and a promise was made to explore terminal co-location and reciprocal lounge access, in addition to Air France launching flights to Abu Dhabi (AUH).
However, it seems that this hasn’t worked out as planned. In September 2024, Air France revealed it would cut its Paris to Abu Dhabi route as of late October 2024, just a year after the flight was launched. At the same time, Etihad announced it would boost its Paris flights.
At the time it seemed like that specific route just maybe didn’t make sense for Air France, rather than the partnership as such being at risk. Well, now the other shoe has dropped. Air France-KLM and Etihad are concluding their codeshare agreement as of March 29, 2025, and are even ending their interline agreement as of April 15, 2025.
While it hasn’t been explicitly stated, I think it’s safe to assume that frequent flyer reciprocity between the airlines will be ending as well. This isn’t just a reversal of the cooperation that has existed since 2023, but it’s a reversal of all the cooperation we’ve seen since 2012.
This seems like a rather bitter breakup
There must be some bad blood here, or something. What strikes me as most unusual is that the interline agreement is ending — this is a very basic level of cooperation between two airlines, even for carriers that don’t partner. Just to demonstrate how basic of a collaboration this is, British Airways has an interline agreement with Air France, Lufthansa, and Virgin Atlantic, arguably its biggest rivals.
Even if Air France-KLM and Etihad were to end their partnership, you’d think that the interline agreement would stay, but that’s not the case here.
Now, I’d speculate that Air France-KLM plan to launch some sort of a partnership with Riyadh Air, when the airline launches. Air France announced it would start flying to Riyadh, and SkyTeam partners Delta and Virgin Atlantic also plan to fly to Riyadh, and partner with Riyadh Air.
However, I wouldn’t necessarily assume that this would force the Etihad partnership to end. While Etihad’s current management team has been doing a good job running the airline overall, it seems the carrier’s partnership situation isn’t exactly great. I wonder what’s going wrong there, and how that will evolve.
Bottom line
Air France-KLM and Etihad appear to be fully cutting ties. The airlines expanded their partnership in late 2023, though Air France canceled its flight to Abu Dhabi within a year. Now the airlines are not only ending their codeshare agreement, but even their interline agreement, which to me, seems like a sign of bad blood.
What do you make of this Air France-KLM & Etihad breakup?
If this does indeed have to do with Riyadh Air, could it be suggesting that Saudia and Riyadh Air are more closely interwoven than we are led to believe? Saudia has been very quiet with all this courting of Riyadh Air by Skyteam members!
not like saudia is going to stage a protest. what do you expect them to do
It seems like Riyadh Air is stealing everything from Etihad. First their CEO and now their partners.
I'm good with it. If I never hears about Etihad again I'd be fine. Clearly they know what they're doing.
Well this is a shocker. I have a strong feeling that DL MIGHT have something to do with this. DL is and has always been very influential in SkyTeam and despite only owning 2% of AF-KL, have the ability to influence their decision making. They also seem to lead the DL-VS-AF-KL TATL JV.
DL after all, out of the US3 had been the most anti-ME3 and remains to be against them. AA and QR...
Well this is a shocker. I have a strong feeling that DL MIGHT have something to do with this. DL is and has always been very influential in SkyTeam and despite only owning 2% of AF-KL, have the ability to influence their decision making. They also seem to lead the DL-VS-AF-KL TATL JV.
DL after all, out of the US3 had been the most anti-ME3 and remains to be against them. AA and QR have worked it out pretty well. UA and EK seem to be getting along as does AC and EK, though EK won't be joining Star soon. That leaves DL with EY but decided to partner with Riyadh Air instead. Riyadh Air did say they won't be joining an alliance but would rather have individual partnerships and this could be where AF-KL is heading. More recently, DL and Saudia have expanded their codes haring agreement. All these could have factored in the ending ties.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
I believe you are wrong - DL cannot dictate ending partnership of this magnitude to another group, especially on an area not concerned by their JV with AFKL.
speculate and assume - why not research and report on the situation or wait to have an article....
Perhaps because he's not an investigative journalist, and that many of us find discussing what we do know interesting?
Etihad says that the 'frequent flyer partnership' with AF-KLM remains unchanged.
Here's a link to the press release from 21.03.2025.
https://www.etihadhub.com/en-ae/news/important-update-regarding-partnership-with-air-france-klm
That is *so* last week! :)
Total speculation:
But maybe Etihad got a sense that it was only being used as a temporary placeholder, until Riyadh Air is up and running? So might've played hard ball with AF/KLM in terms of relationship building.
Or since the old Etihad nearly went bankrupt, because of its Swissair-like approach to making terrible partnering decisions; maybe the new Etihad's management is wary of close partnership ties, and AF/KLM didn't feel like they were getting...
Total speculation:
But maybe Etihad got a sense that it was only being used as a temporary placeholder, until Riyadh Air is up and running? So might've played hard ball with AF/KLM in terms of relationship building.
Or since the old Etihad nearly went bankrupt, because of its Swissair-like approach to making terrible partnering decisions; maybe the new Etihad's management is wary of close partnership ties, and AF/KLM didn't feel like they were getting the partnership they needed?
Who knows. Just completely uncorroborated (but very plausible) theories.
I don't understand anyone's enthusiam for, yet to be launched, RiyadhAir. I could be a total flop of a second-rate Saudi airline like ever other one attempted by that state.
This wouldbe/could be collaboration is likely to end in tears, IMO.
"While it hasn’t been explicitly stated, I think it’s safe to assume that frequent flyer reciprocity between the airlines will be ending as well."
There has actually never been any frequent flyer reciprocity. It was announced and "explored", but it never came to fruition. I flew on EY CDG-AUH last December on an AF codeshare (after AF axed its own AUH flights) and was denied both lounge access and the use of premium check-in as FB Plat.
Regardless of elite benefits, one used to be able to earn XPs on Etihad until a few months ago!
The frequent flyer reciprocity only applied to flights marketed or sold by AF-KLM. If you had booked the flight directly with EY, then there was no lounge access etc included.
@Throwawayname: That was only the case if you were flying on an AF codeshare. Flying Blue discontinued XP earning on non-SkyTeam airlines back in April 2024 and it was unrelated to their deal with Etihad.
@InceptionCat: That's wrong. If you re-read what I wrote, you will see that I flew as an AF elite on an AF-marketed EY-operated flight and got no benefits.
April 2024 is 'a few months ago'!
I’m flying Etihad F from CDG-AUH at the end of April. My understanding was that EY flies from AF’s terminal and uses their lounges. What does this mean for that now? Will they still have a lounge agreement in place? Will EY move back to their previous terminal?
As of last month, Etihad moved out of Air France’s terminal (2E) in CDG and moved to Terminal 1, where they have been before October 2023.
It's called the art of the deal. Air France/KLM tried making a deal. They tried wooing Etihad into Sky Team. I'm pretty sure that Delta was making overtures too. They probably said, "Look, either expand our relationship and at least begin the path of joining Sky Team or we're cutting all ties." Etihad called their bluff and Air France/KLM did what they threatened. Now, the question is whether this is permanent or whether it's an...
It's called the art of the deal. Air France/KLM tried making a deal. They tried wooing Etihad into Sky Team. I'm pretty sure that Delta was making overtures too. They probably said, "Look, either expand our relationship and at least begin the path of joining Sky Team or we're cutting all ties." Etihad called their bluff and Air France/KLM did what they threatened. Now, the question is whether this is permanent or whether it's an attempt to force etihad to the negotiating table.
AF wanted EY in Skyteam. DL said no because they saw more potential in Riyadh Air. This started complicating the relationship between AF and EY.
AF introduced the high density 777 out of nowhere (probably realising the partnership was moving tons of economy pax and not much else), EY responded tit for tat by deploying the A380 to CDG. This was so rushed they didn’t even get full gate utilization approval which has led...
AF wanted EY in Skyteam. DL said no because they saw more potential in Riyadh Air. This started complicating the relationship between AF and EY.
AF introduced the high density 777 out of nowhere (probably realising the partnership was moving tons of economy pax and not much else), EY responded tit for tat by deploying the A380 to CDG. This was so rushed they didn’t even get full gate utilization approval which has led them to use remote stands for the whale almost everyday.
Eventually AF pulled out of AUH, the negotiations hit a standstill. And DL led negotiations with Saudia eventually brought AF into the fold with flights to RUH now being relaunched.
Full circle. Shows you how much clout DL has.
Meanwhile EY is licking its wounds, as usual playing second fiddle to EK and QR and now Riyadh air.
Etihad has released a statement on the end of their partnership with AF KLM, confirming that their frequent flyer partnership should continue and remain unaffected.
https://www.etihadhub.com/en-ae/news/important-update-regarding-partnership-with-air-france-klm
As of today, they are still listed as Frequent Flyer partners on both Etihad and Flying Blue websites and Etihad awards remain available via AF/KL websites.
I saw the announcement, too, but it doesn't make sense. If EY is still able to issue award tickets on AF/KL, EY must maintain interline agreement with AF/KL. I think the SPA (Special Prorate Agreement) may end on 15APR, but if the interline agreement also ends, the FF partnership must end, too.
I suspect that EY may be joining an alliance that isn’t ST.
It’s always rumored that EY would go to Star.
QR wouldn’t allow EY into OW.
Why would EY go to *A when the founding partner of *A (UA) has a partnership with EK? SkyTeam is/was EY’s only alliance option really.
QR doesn't have the ability to "not allow EY into OW" as it does not have veto power. Only AA, BA, Qantas, and Cathay do.
QR owns ~20% of IAG which owns British Airways, so it could manufacture a veto if it wanted to.
Interesting that Etihad doesn't seem to it work out with European partners.
A few years back Etihad had a partnership of sorts with Lufthansa such that EY was operating from LH's Terminal 2 in MUC.
They parted ways and EY moved to Terminal 1.
Despite that, EY & LH group still retained a codeshare & interline partnership, even if they stopped sharing terminals
Guessing this means EY will not be in SkyTeam anytime soon, huh?
@ DaBluBoi -- That's what it looks like. Clearly all SkyTeam carriers are flocking to Riyadh Air.
@Ben - What's the logic behind that? Do these airlines get financial incentives for partnering with Riyadh Air? I really don't see any other reason as to why they'd dump a well-established carrier for a brand new airline that hasn't operated a single commercial flight yet.
"that hasn't operated a single commercial flight yet."
And won't, for almost another 2 years. And even then, won't have a network that's worth a damn, until years after that. It's a real head-scratcher.
AFKLM part own SAS also has colab with Ethiad...lets see what happens with that