To cater to the rising demand for international travel to and from India, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways plans to add flight services to Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, an airline offical said. The two new flight services will commence from January 1.Currently, Etihad and its sister concern Air Arabia jointly operate a network of 232 weekly flights to 10 crucial gateways in India.
“India is one of the largest and most crucial markets for Etihad. The airline has played a significant role in facilitating travel and trade between the UAE and India. Since its inception, our network planning has been pragmatic, strategically embracing new opportunities in response to the growing demand and development in the region,” Salil Nath, Etihad’s India head, told FE.
He said that this approach has consistently propelled the expansion of the airline’s network in India, which now encompasses a number of major cities, including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.At present, the airline has not exhausted its bilateral weekly seat allocation to and from India. It still has 10,000 unutilised seat per week, as it only operates 40,000 of the 50,000 allocated seats.
