Emirates willing to cooperate with rival UAE airline Etihad

© Dieniti

After years of battling one another for regional (and global) dominance, it seems there may be talks on some sort of union between Emirates and Etihad. Speaking to Reuters, president of Emirates Tim Clark said the carrier was open to the idea of cooperation in areas including procurement. While Mr Clark noted that a full merger was “unlikely”, he did say this was “up to the owners”. The report comes as both carriers face increasing attacks from US airlines claiming they receive anti-competitive state subsidies. Meanwhile, Air Transport Worl reports that Lufthansa is continuing its march across Europe: just days after submitting an offer of $249m to take over the assets of bankrupt airberlin, it has now expressed interest in establishing “a new Alitalia”.