Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has entered a partnership with budget-airline easyJet to expand operations in Europe revealed WAM.

Passengers can now book journeys on the easyJet website from 68 cities in Europe to Abu Dhabi, connecting onto Etihad flights from 10 European gateways. Etihad’s destinations include Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Rome, Geneva, Madrid, Manchester, Milan Malpensa, and Zurich.

Both airlines intend to add more destinations in the future, namely in Europe, Africa, the Azores and the UAE.

The partnership follows easyJet’s accelerated and successful rollout programme with flight comparison search engine, Dohop, which powers the easyJet worldwide website connecting its European network with long-haul flights.

Etihad explained that the partnership is thanks to its New Distribution Capability (NDC) platform, which gives the airline the ability to sign new agreements. Etihad revealed that it intends to add more airlines to its NDC portfolio in the future.

Etihad Airways VP of alliances and Partnerships, Ali Saleh said: ”easyJet is a perfect launch partner for us in Europe, allowing us to reliably increase the breadth of our continental reach to and from Abu Dhabi, as we enhance ways of connecting directly with more airlines and travel partners around the world.”

Saleh continued: “The ability to provide end-to-end booking capabilities through our NDC platform will provide customers with ‘one stop’ solutions for seamless travel with partners, whether legacy or low-cost, through Etihad’s global gateways.”

easyJet head of commercial partnerships, Rachel Smith added: “Through smart self-connections and strategic partnerships, we continue to extend the reach of the worldwide by easyJet network, offering more value and more routes to more customers.”