Virgin Australia has struck a new code-sharing agreement with Etihad Airways-backed Alitalia, at a time when some analysts doubt whether the Abu Dhabi-based carrier will remain a shareholder in the Australian airline over the longer term. The new deal will cover Italian carrier Alitalia's daily flights from Abu Dhabi to Rome and Milan, destinations to which Virgin already offers code-shares through Etihad and Singapore Airlines. A reciprocal frequent flyer arrangement is expected to follow soon. Until March, Alitalia had a code-share and frequent flyer agreement with Virgin rival Qantas, a legacy from before Etihad bought a 49% stake in the financially troubled Italian carrier, as part of a E1.76b deal in 2014. In December, Australian Cramer Ball, the former head of Etihad affiliate Jet Airways, was appointed the new CE of Alitalia. Etihad owns a 25.1% stake in Virgin Australia. Air New Zealand has placed its 25.9% stake in the Australian carrier for sale, in a move that could result in significant shifts on the share register. However, aviation experts view SIA as a more likely buyer of the Air New Zealand stake than Etihad.<br/>
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Etihad Airways recorded 99.8% reliability in its first year of operating the Airbus A380-800, the best performance level of any airline to have introduced the aircraft, the carrier said April 11 after receiving the Airbus Operational Reliability Performance award. The 0.2% of reliability problems in the January-December 2015 period did not include any cancellations, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier added. Etihad SVP-technical Jeff Wilkinson said the airline’s performance came down to “the sheer hard work and commitment … of our engineering teams.” He noted the airline also had one of the highest rates of daily utilization of the A380, with a typical turnaround time of only two hours, which underlined its achievement. Wilkinson said preparations for the A380’s service entry started more than a year before the initial delivery in December 2014, with a cross-functional entry into service team that included representatives from technical operations, logistics, flight operations and other divisions of the airline. <br/>