Etihad to begin new US route in September

posted on 29/06/2009: 15 views

Etihad Airways' inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi to Chicago will take off on September 2, a spokesman for the Abu Dhabi-based airline confirmed on Sunday. He said initially, there will be flights three times a week to the third-largest city in the US, and from October 1, flights on that route would be daily. The move is aimed at strengthening Etihad's network in North America.

Etihad will operate an Airbus A340-500 wide body aircraft on the Abu Dhabi-Chicago route, with the capacity of 240 passengers. The airline expects company revenues to reach $3.1 billion (Dh11.4 billion) this year.

For 2009, Etihad's new destinations are Melbourne, Chicago, Athens, Istanbul, Larnaca and Hyderabad. "We see an average 14 per cent airline capacity growth through to 2020," a senior Etihad executive, Roy Kinnear, said on Saturday. Currently, Etihad operates 42 Airbus and Boeing aircraft and flies to more than 50 destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. – Gulf News

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