Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has signed an agreement with the Saudi Arabian airline Nasair to codeshare across 26 flight sectors across the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

Etihad Airways will now place the code EY on its Nasair flights between the Saudi cities of Jeddah and Medina and Etihad’s home base of Abu Dhabi. Nasair will place its XY code on Etihad Airways flights between Abu Dhabi and Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, Colombo, Dhaka, Kuwait, Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Tehran, Beirut, Bahrain, Muscat, Jakarta, Amman, Damascus, Basra, Baghdad, Erbil, Khartoum, Cairo, Tripoli, Istanbul and subsequently on flights to Europe, the Americas, and southeast Asia.

The agreement is still subject to regulatory approval, but it is expected that both airlines will display their respective codes on the selected routes during their winter schedules.

Under the terms of the deal, Etihad will be able to improve its connections to Jeddah and for the first time offer connections to Medina. Saudi travellers will also benefit from increased variety of flight options when travelling on Nasair.

Etihad already has 38 codeshare agreements with other airlines across the world and codesharing is a key element of the airline’s expansion strategy.