Officials from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are in talks with their German counterparts concerning Etihad Airways' plans to codeshare with equity partner Air Berlin (1991) (Berlin Tegel) during the upcoming winter season which begins on October 25.

According to Reuters, the Emiratis favoured a Thursday, October 15 start to the talks which are a follow on from previous discussions held in August.

Etihad experienced the same problems in gaining authorization for its winter schedule in October last year after Germany's federal aviation office (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt - LBA) initially denied the airline permission to codeshare on thirty-four of its requested sixty Air Berlin's routes claiming they violated the terms of Germany's Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with the United Arab Emirates.

The Germans' concerns stemmed from the fact that several destinations in Germany that Etihad had planned to serve via codeshare were not covered by the terms of the BASA - among them Berlin and Stuttgart as well as two other major German cities.

However, following background negotiations, permission was eventually granted for all routes though the LBA did note that that was an exception and not a rule.

Air Berlin has expressed optimism the winter plan will gain approval.