Etihad announced today that they will cancel their Abu Dhabi-DFW flight effective March 25, 2018. Now when things like this happen you can usually expect some interesting corporatespeak and this definitely delivered.
(you can see my review of a similar flight here)
According to World Airline News, Etihad CEO Peter Baumgartner blamed American’s cancellation of its codeshare agreement with Etihad. Saying that half of Etihad’s customers on the route ended up connecting to other American Airlines flights, Baumgartner said that the commercials no longer made sense without the codeshare agreement.
Baumgartner was sure to tantalizingly say that this decision could be reconsidered if American reinstated the codeshare agreement, so they may not cancel it after all.
At the end of the day, ultra longhauls like this are difficult from a yield perspective so the American codeshare bit could just be a convenient excuse. Either way it definitely puts pressure on American. Gotta love corporate politics!
