Etihad Airways Flies To Australia
Etihad Airways will fly to Australia from the Middle East
United Arab Emirates National Airline, Etihad Airways is to begin scheduled flights from its Middle East base in Abu Dhabi to Sydney in Australia.
This follows the conclusion of an extended aviation bilateral agreement between the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
Etihad Airways new Chief Executive, formerly head of Gulf Air, James Hogan, said: “We appreciate the support of the Government of Abu Dhabi in securing the additional rights that will allow us to start flights to Australia in the next few months. I believe that our service will significantly drive and support the development of trade and tourism between the UAE and Australia. We are finalising the arrangements and hope to announce full details shortly.”
Etihad Airways will begin three flights a week to Sydney from March 26 and this will increase to a daily service from June 29th.
An Airbus A340-500 will be used on all of the flights. From March Etihad flight EY450 will depart from Abu Dhabi at 10.10 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday arriving in Sydney at 06.15 the following day. Etihad flight EY451 will depart Sydney on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 15.20 and arrive in Abu Dhabi at 12.10.
As well as providing a direct link from the Middle East to Australia it seems likely that passengers from the United Kingdom airports served by Etihad will be able to fly from Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchesterto Australia via the Etihad’s Abu Dhabi hub.
Etihad expanded its services to include 16 new international destinations during 2006. These were Casablanca, Dhaka, Doha, Islamabad, Jakarta, Jeddah, Khartoum, Lahore, Manchester, Manila, Muscat, New York, Paris, Peshawar, Riyadh and Tehran.
Etihad also introduced a new scheduled flight to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on 16th January 2007.
