United Arab Emirates? national carrier Etihad Air has applied to the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) for permission to connect eight new Indian destinations to Abu Dhabi apart from the existing four it already operates on.
Currently, the carrier flies daily to Delhi, Mumbai, four times a week to Kochi and three times a week to Thiruvananthapuram from Abu Dhabi.
The new destinations are Calicut, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Jaipur, and Kolkata. ?We would prefer to operate daily flights from these destinations,? John Hogan, CEO of Etihad said.
According to ministry officials, if an airline wishes to fly to new destinations within the country, then they have to get their schedules approved by the DGCA before the start of the summer and winter schedules.
The carrier has also announced that it will start flying to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram daily from October, bringing its total number of flights connecting India to Abu Dhabi to 28.
Etihad will also take delivery of six new A320s for this purpose in the first quarter of next year, Hogan said. And if we need more aircraft, they can be ordered and it would take six months to a year to get them operational, he added.