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Jet Airways once flew high as the standard-bearer for air travel in a country where aviation was a monopoly of tired state airlines. But now with more than US$1.2b of net debt and its operational fleet having shrunk from 123 planes to just 41, the skies are darkening rapidly. Jet has defaulted on loan payments to lessors and creditors and pilots have not been paid in months. Its founder and chairman Naresh Goyal is desperately trying to regain the support of disillusioned investors and wary lenders. He has appealed for emergency funds from Etihad Airways, which would then be matched with fresh credit from Indian banks. But Etihad has so far refused. Monday, Jet grounded a number of flights to and from Abu Dhabi, Etihad’s main hub, in a move analysts described as a “point of no return” for the talks. <br/>

Etihad Airways and Gulf Air are to step up their recently signed wide-ranging cooperative agreement by instituting a codeshare from the start of the industry’s summer timetable season. The latest move comes after Etihad and Gulf Air signed an MOU to cooperate in several areas in Nov 2018. Training services have already been the subject of a separate accord under the MOU. The codeshare will operate both between the two carriers’ hubs and further afield. Currently, Gulf Air has a 4X-daily operation to Abu Dhabi, while Etihad flies 3X-daily to Bahrain. Gulf Air has a mainly regional route network and serves a large number of destinations in the Indian sub-continent, together with a small number of long-haul destinations, such as London Heathrow and Manila. Etihad has a more wide-ranging long-haul route map. <br/>