Etihad Airways yesterday said that it would add flights to Baku, Tbilisi and Dar es Salaam in the second half of 2015.
The Etihad announcement comes after the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority said last week that it planning to promote the capital in Azerbaijan and the CIS countries this month.
Etihad will fly to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan from October 1 next year; Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia from October 2 and Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, from December 1.
The new routes will take Etihad’s total to 110.
Etihad says Dar es Salaam will be its 11th route in Africa and the fourth in East Africa.
“Etihad has been eager to step into underserved markets,” said said Saj Ahmad, the chief analyst at StrategicAero Research. “Flights to Baku, Tbilisi and Dar es Salaam demonstrate aptly Etihad’s razor-sharp focus on those cities where sizeable catchment areas exist and equally contain significant potential for high fare-paying, high-yield customers.”
Etihad will serve these destinations with Airbus A320 aircraft, comprising business and economy classes.
“Seven new routes have already been introduced this year and three more will follow by the end of 2014, strengthening our operations in the US, Europe, GCC, Indian subcontinent, Asia and Australia,” said James Hogan, the president and chief executive of Etihad.
Etihad will also start flying to Phuket in Thailand, as well as San Francisco and Dallas in the US over the rest of this year.
For the first half of 2015, Etihad will start daily flights to Kolkata in India, Entebbe in Uganda, Edinburgh in Scotland and Madrid in Spain. It will also fly to Hong Kong four times a week and Algiers, the capital of Algeria three times a week.
Etihad, which has a fleet of 104 aircraft, will receive 14 airplanes in 2015, comprising four Airbus A380s, three Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and seven A320s.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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