Etihad Plans Substantial Route Revival
As the world continues to resume air travel, Etihad Airways has recently revealed a substantial route revival planned for the coming month. In total, the airline will once again be serving 58 destinations. A significant emphasis has been placed on resuming flights to India by the airline. Hinting that the country’s planned reopening to international flights may now be set in stone.
Akin to airlines around the world, Etihad has in recent months halted all flight operations. However, while some airlines such as easyJet opted to do this voluntarily, Etihad had no choice due to a government flight ban. Thankfully, the airline is now well established in its return to the skies, with many more destinations planned for its recovery.
By the 1st of August, Etihad hopes to be operating flights to a total of 58 different destinations across the world. The airline has already reopened several destinations, mainly in Asian and Europe.
The first wave of destinations to rejoin the network will be served from July 16th:
- Amman
- Belgrade
- Dusseldorf
- Kuwait
- Malé
- Manchester
- Munich
Additionally, the airline has also now planned routes to resume on August 1st. This would see the airline resuming flights to destinations such as Africa for the first time since the grounding of all operations. In total, 20 new routes are planned to resume on August 1st.
The Abu Dhabi based carrier will also return to Casablanca, Rabat, and Seychelles in Africa. In Europe, the airline will be returning to Istanbul, Moscow, and Rome. In the Middle East, Etihad will return to Riyadh and Muscat.
Arguably Etihad’s biggest resumption will be returning to India. The country has mostly been closed to international flights for months now, except for some repatriation flights. Etihad will begin flying to these Indian cities:
- Ahmedabad
- Bengaluru
- Chennai
- Kochi
- Kolkata
- Kozhikode
- Mumbai
- New Delhi
- Trivandrum
Of course, all of these routes are subject to change in response to the current pandemic. Individual routes may potentially be scaled back or delayed due to changing flight bans and regulations.
Commenting on the planned expansion, Tony Douglas, Etihad Group CEO said,
“By August we aim to operate approximately 45 per cent of our pre-COVID capacity… Over the last few months, we have seized every opportunity to improve our processes, review our product offering, and to undertake the biggest fleet maintenance programme in our history. We are tremendously grateful to our customers and partners for their continued loyalty.”