Etihad Airways ends partnership with Virgin Australia

Etihad Airways has announced it will terminate its codeshare partnership with Virgin Australia. From June 1 next year, the codesharing and frequent flyer schemes shared by Virgin and Etihad will end. It comes as Qatar in October said it will buy 25 per cent of Virgin Australia and become its exclusive partner for flights to Europe, the UK, Africa and the Middle East. Singapore Airlines remains a part of this codeshare network. Etihad will be effectively frozen out of Australian domestic air connections but claimed it will not pull out of flying to Australia. The airline said it will increase flights to Melbourne and Sydney next summer.