Etihad to fly to more Indian cities

ABU Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is looking at a major expansion in India. To begin with, the national airline of United Arab Emirates (UAE) will increase its weekly flight frequency to 45 by the year-end from the present 38 flights.

As part of this plan, the carrier has announced four flights per week from Hyderabad. The flights will begin from November and will operate daily beginning next year. The airline will also add more Indian cities to its list of six destinations.

"We are focusing on our network growth. The traffic growth from India is tremendous. The traffic in all segments including corporate, leisure and even students has grown significantly in the recent past," Neerja Bhatia, country manager (India and Sri Lanka), Etihad Airways, told Financial Chronicle. At present, Etihad operates 38 flights a week from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai, New Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode and Chennai.

The airline's expansion comes at a time when almost every airline in the world is struggling hard to manage load factor and margins. Bhatia said the carrier would further expand its operations depending on the aviation ministry's approval in India. "We have applied for the civil aviation ministry's approval to fly to more destinations from India. One city that we want to add immediately is Bangalore.

There are continuous talks with the Indian aviation authorities. We have got a lot of support from them,"Bhatia said. The airline, however, may have to wait before it adds more Indian destinations to its list. The ministry of civil aviation is going very slow on bilateral agreements to award additional traffic rights to foreign carriers to help domestic carriers who are having tough time with declining demand and high aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices.

"We have received requests from several foreign carriers to increase frequencies from India. However, we will go slow on bilateral agreements. Our own carriers are struggling with the low traffic. Allowing more foreign flights will make it even tougher for them to fly," a senior ministry official, who did not want to be named, said.

The number of flights operated by foreign airlines has increased around 85 per cent in the past five years. While in 2004, foreign carriers operated 711 services per week to and from India, in 2009, the number touched 1,315.

Source:Etihad to fly to more Indian citiesFinancial ChronicleDate-7 August 2009Edition- New Delhi Appeared on Pg 6