The CEOs of six airlines in the Etihad Airways Partners group met on Monday in Rome to identify and progress collaborative initiatives designed to cut the carriers’ costs, increase their revenues, and expand sustainable choice for their customers.

The partnership summit is being chaired by James Hogan, president and CEO of Etihad Airways, and brings together the leaders of Alitalia, the airberlin Group, Jet Airways, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Etihad Regional, and the chief officers of Etihad Airways and Alitalia.

Etihad Airways holds minority stakes in Alitalia (49 percent), airberlin (29.2 percent), Jet Airways (24 percent), Air Serbia (49 percent), Air Seychelles (40 percent) and Darwin Airline, which trades as Etihad Regional (33.3 percent).

The meeting follows the conclusion last week of an innovative collective financing agreement, through which $ 700 million was raised on the international markets for use by Etihad Airways, Etihad Airport Services, airberlin, Alitalia, Jet Airways, Air Serbia and Air Seychelles.

“The airline industry is global, not local,” Hogan said. “Individually, we are small participants in the global market. But collectively, our partnership serves 330 destinations, flies almost 700 aircraft and carries over 100 million passengers each year, making us the world’s seventh largest grouping of airlines. We leverage the buying power, resources, relationships and influence of our participating airlines to achieve the most cost-effective and customer-friendly outcomes.”

Members of Etihad Airways Partners also work together to reduce costs and improve efficiency and customer choice through measures, which otherwise would only be available through mergers or takeovers.

In addition to codesharing and joint commercial activities, the members of Etihad Airways Partners collaborate through resource sharing, adoption of best practice, and joint procurement of assets, services and supplies.

They also develop relationships between each other, or facilitate deals with external airline partners or suppliers.