Etihad to double flights, destinations in India

Etihad Airways, a national airline of United Arab Emirates (UAE), is set to expand its services to India with the launch of two new routes from Abu Dhabi to Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and Kochi (Cochin) in the southern India state of Kerala. The new cities will double Etihad's destinations in India to four, joining highly successful services to Mumbai and New Delhi. Flights from Abu Dhabi to Thiruvananthapuram will begin on May 31, 2007 and to Kochi on June 3, 2007. Etihad will also increase the frequency on its Abu Dhabi to New Delhi route from three flights-per-week to a daily service at the beginning of June 2007, which will see the total number of Etihad flights to India each week rise from 10 to 21.

Etihad will operate the Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi services three and four times-per-week respectively and both routes are expected to increase to daily flights from October 2007. Etihad will operate a three cabin Airbus A340-500 aircraft on the new Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi routes, with the capacity to carry 240 passengers. Following the launch of services to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, Etihad will fly to nine destinations on the Asian sub-continent to join New Delhi and Mumbai in India as well as Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar in Pakistan and Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Courtesy: Financial Express

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