The Financial Express reported that Salil Nath, the airline’s country manager for India, said that Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi, intended to increase frequency on existing flights as well as launch new ones as part of the expansion.

Due to the airline’s weekly seat allocation to and from India under the bilateral air service agreement going unused, it has decided to expand.

Due to only operating 40,000 of the 50,000 allocated seats, the airline still has 10,000 open seats each week.”Etihad still has seats available, and we are planning for future expansion via new flights to gateway destinations in India or additional frequencies on our present network,” said Nath.

165 flights per week are currently operated by the joint venture between Etihad and Abu Dhabi Air Arabia to 10 gateways in India.

The airline offers service to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, and Thiruvananthapuram through the joint venture.

Nath estimates that by 2023, the airline’s network in India will have grown by 54%. “Our network connectivity has increased from 77 weekly flights to 118 and 165 for the Etihad and Air Arabia Abu Dhabi IV compared with 2022,” the statement reads. In recent times, it has increased service to Ahmedabad, Chennai, and Cochin while also restarting service to Kolkata and expanding its network.

“Three daily services to Delhi and three daily services to Mumbai have been added, and we have improved our global connectivity with more flights to the US,” Nath said.

He attributed this expansion to India’s strong outbound travel market demand. “Demand is high, and business at our company is expanding greatly. Beyond the metro areas, there is a growing desire among Indian travellers to spend on luxury experiences and discover new cultures.
Source- Travel biz
Link- https://travelbizmonitor.com/etihad-plans-to-expand-operaitons-in-india/