Etihad Airways chief executive James Hogan (pictured) has dismissed concerns that the European Commission may investigate the extent of Etihad involvement in EU carriers in which it has stakes, including Air Berlin.
Hogan said: “It is a nonsense to suggest we don’t comply with the regulations.”
Etihad holds a 29% stake in Air Berlin and is in talks to take up to a 49% shareholding in troubled Alitalia. The carrier also has stakes in Air Serbia and Aer Lingus.
Hogan declined to comment on Alitalia. But speaking in Abu Dhabi at the launch of Etihad’s new first class cabin, he said: “The EC has been to meet with us. We comply very clearly with the rules and regulations of Europe.”
He dismissed any suggestion the carrier had broken EC rules on foreign ownership and control as “propaganda from our competitors”.
Hogan also dismissed concerns about the extent of Air Berlin’s losses, saying: “If we were not convinced Air Berlin could be re-engineered we would not have invested.”
He said: “We are bringing in a management consultancy to re-engineer Air Berlin. We have placed two executives in the business. We are looking at how to accelerate a more fundamental restructuring.
“We have no doubt that Air Berlin will come back to profitability. We started re-calibrating their pricing 12 months ago. I’m convinced we will see improvement.”
He added: “Germany is the largest outbound market of Europe and Air Berlin carries 35 million passengers.”
Hogan’s declined to on Etihad’s interest in Alitalia other than to say: “Alitalia is already an important partner to Etihad. We have a strong relationship.”
His refusal came as sources in Italy suggested an announcement is imminent.
Hogan said Etihad had chosen to invest in other carriers and ally with codeshare partners rather than join a global airline alliance, arguing: “The alliance model is fractured.
“We have great relations with Air France-KLM, but we are not going into SkyTeam. We have close relations with American Airlines [in Oneworld].
“We have 47 codeshare partners. If we were in an alliance we couldn’t have 47 codeshare partners.”