Etihad Airways To Add New Destinations, Increase Flight Frequency In 2024

Etihad Airways confirmed that it will continue to expand its operations by adding new destinations and increasing the frequency of its flights to key locations this year.

Antonoaldo Neves, group CEO of Etihad Aviation Group, recently revealed that its new destinations will include Boston, the airline's fourth one in the United States. There will be four flights to this city per week starting March 31.

The CEO then shared that Etihad Airways will begin offering flights to Nairobi, Kenya's capital, on May 1. The airline also started offering flights to two destinations in India's Kerala region earlier this month: Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram.

Moreover, the airline will increase its number of flights to certain destinations, including Maldives (14 flights), Sri Lanka's Colombo (7 flights), Pakistan's Islamabad (14 flights) and Egypt's Cairo (21 flights), per week.

Neves is expecting the number of passengers to increase by next year, even matching the same number of travelers in 2017, which was around 18 million.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the airline reportedly had 17 million passengers.

"In 2017, our fleet peaked at 110 aircraft, and we worked on reducing the fleet size between 2019 and 2022. Today, we are witnessing the return of our large aircraft such as the Airbus A380, Boeing 787, and Boeing 777, resulting in an increase in our fleet to 86 aircraft, and we expect it to reach a total of 160 aircraft by 2030," the CEO said, as per WAM.

"In addition to launching new destinations, we are working on increasing frequencies to our daily destinations in North America, Europe, Asia, the Gulf region and the Indian subcontinent. This is a significant step to provide more choices for travelers, offer increased comfort for passengers, and establish better connections within our growing global network," he added.

Neves then talked about the airline's diverse aircraft lineup, which includes Boeing 787, Airbus A380, Boeing 777 and Airbus A350. He added that Etihad currently flies to more than 70 destinations around the world.

He also praised the newly launched Terminal A at Abu Dhabi International Airport, emphasizing that it is a key cornerstone in the company's growth strategy. The new terminal, which can have 79 planes at once and 11,000 passengers per hour, was launched last month.