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Etihad to open Sydney and Melbourne lounges
Published: 14/06/2012 RSS
Etihad Airways will open a joint premium lounge with Virgin Australia in Sydney early next year and plans to follow it up by opening one in Melbourne.
'SteveJohsonInOz' alerted us to the story on the forum this morning (click here), referring to an article on Australian Business Traveller, and an Etihad spokesman confirmed the news this afternoon.
It shows both carriers are now formulating their commercial plans on the ground as well as in the air, after Etihad recently bought a 4.99 per cent stake in Virgin Australia Holdings (click here).
The move is likely to be welcomed by northbound-flying premium passengers. Neither airline has its own facility at Sydney, relying instead of Air New Zealand's Koru Club lounge.
Etihad operates lounges across its network, although only Dublin, Frankfurt, London Heathrow and Manchester are dedicated, and the majority operate with airline partners.
Emirates operates first and business class lounges in Sydney and Melbourne.
For more information, visit etihad.com
Report by Dominic Ellis