In late 2013, Etihad Airways announced plans to establish a regional European airline, which would aid the airline in connecting to a number of Europe’s secondary cities.

An agreement was later reached with Swiss-based airline, Darwin Airline’s, which resulted in Etihad Airways initiating plans to acquire a 33.3% share in the airline (pending regulatory approval).

Darwin Airline will continue to operate as a separate airline from Etihad Airways. However, the airline will be re-branded as ‘Etihad Regional’ and feature the Etihad livery on the aircraft fuselage. Etihad Regional will operate an initial fleet of ten 50-seat Saab Turbo-prop aircraft.

In December 2013, the European Commission’s Air Safety committee placed all airlines operating under the regulatory oversight of the Nepalese civil aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), on the European Union’s list of banned carriers.

As a result, all airlines operating under the regulatory oversight of CAAN are prohibited from operating within European air space.

The EU Air safety committee had reportedly undertaken extensive consultation with Nepalese authorities over the preceding several weeks prior to the regulator’s (and subsequently Nepal’s) inclusion on to the EU ban list. However, the committee concluded that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal failed to sufficiently comply with international regulatory oversight standards.

In late November 2013, the Australian civil aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), grounded four Jetstream turbo-prop aircraft being operated by Australian-based regional operator, Brindabella Airlines, after the regulator had identified that the aircraft were overdue for mandatory engine maintenance.

On the 12th of December, CASA then proceeded to ground the remaining six aircraft in the airline’s fleet until a maintenance review could be conducted on all of the aircraft.

Two of the original four grounded aircraft have since been returned to service. As a result of the recent grounding, the airline was consequently restricted to operating two aircraft out of a total fleet of ten. The airline has since gone into receivership.