etihad airways increase stake in vah

According to an announcement today the Foreign Investment Review Board has approved Etihad Airways lifting its stake in Virgin to 21.24%, joining Air New Zealand (25.5%) and Singapore Airlines (22.2%).

Interesting as it comes just as Qantas announces it has given up trying to maintain its 65% of passengers within Australia, obviously to try and reduce its huge deficit.

Etihad, AirNZ and Singapore obviously believe strongly that Virgin will feed passengers into the international routes and that the combination of three major airlines will more than combat the ever-decreasing influence of Qantas international and its alliance with Emirates.

I like the look of Virgin with the combined muscle of three profitable international airlines and this will certainly enhance Virgin's future. Qantas, as a brand image as decreased in the last couple of years and Aussie passengers are not as keen to support the 'Flying Kangaroo' as they once were.