Emirates and Etihad have been competing feach other viciously in UAE aviation industry for more over a decade.
Fly Emirates is willing to collaborate with the rival Etihad airline, stated Etihad spokesperson to a Singapore based media.
According to President Tim Clark of Emirates Airlines, the largest airline and Etihad Airways, Flag carrier of the country will co-operate each other for procurement; a full merger between the pair may not seem possible but depends on their owner.
“I think there is value to be had working more closely with them,” Clark said. “There are many areas that the airlines could work together on like procurement,” he added, referring to purchasing and spending strategies.
“But we have to go the first jump first to understand what it is we could do and I‘m simply the manager of one of the businesses. It is my superiors who have to make that call, not me.”
“We constantly seek opportunities for innovative collaboration with other organizations, where it makes business and commercial sense,” an Etihad spokesman said in a statement.
Emirates and Etihad both airlines are government owned and have to work to build global relations from their respective hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi even as they competed for overcapacity, security concerns and fall in regional business travel in an increasingly challenging aviation market.
Emirates currently employees around 65,000 staff, about three times as many as Etihad. Their fleet size and list of routes are also substantially bigger.
