airberlin is expanding its code-sharing activities with Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, with five additional destinations in East Asia via Abu Dhabi.

The Chinese cities of Chengdu, Beijing and Shanghai are being added, in addition to the Tokyo and Nagoya in Japan.

airberlin flies daily from Berlin and Dusseldorf to Etihad Airways’ Abu Dhabi hub, and in total, the two carriers offer 42 non-stop return flights per week from four German hubs – Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich – to the UAE capital.

The combined schedules already allow extensive onward connectivity to destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, chief strategy and network planning officer airberlin, said: “Since January this year, airberlin and Etihad Airways have been successfully working together on the reciprocal marketing of our respective partner route networks.

“The codeshare is proving to be extremely positive for both airline partners and has now grown to include 87 routes worldwide.”

The addition of the new East Asia codeshare routes will see airberlin offer a daily return flight from Dusseldorf to Shanghai, five weekly return flights to Tokyo (increasing to daily in April 2013), Nagoya and Beijing, and four weekly return flights to Chengdu.

Chengdu will also be connected to the German capital with four return flights per week.

From February 2013, airberlin will also offer increased services to both Singapore and Brisbane, Australia, with flights increasing from the current three per week to daily.