Aviation

Ethiad Airways to increase footprint in South India

Neeti Mehra - Mumbai

Etihad Airways announced its ambitious plans for the Indian aviation market and will expand its footprint in South India. It will also augment its services in Mumbai to double daily, and daily from Delhi to Abu Dhabi. Currently the airline operates 10 flights per week from India -seven flights from Mumbai and three from Delhi on the A330 aircraft.

Speaking to Express TravelWorld, Charles Phelps-Penry, regional general manager, Etihad Airways, disclosed, "Year 2006 will be a landmark year when we double our network of 24 destinations worldwide and triple our fleet size. This will be apart from raising frequencies to all destinations to daily, or higher, and inducting new aircraft to our fleet with state-of-the-art onboard facilities. The potential for India to become the largest outbound market in the world is about to be realised. We have recognised the need to add new cities to our network in India because there is a large Indian community in the Gulf and beyond in the UK and North America. We are pursuing the possibility of adding two or three cities to our network later this year; perhaps a combination of Cochin, Trivandrum, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad."

The new aircraft will be fitted with revamped business class and economy class cabins, and the first 10 aircraft will be configured with these two cabins only. The business class cabin - Pearl Zone - will offer first-class facilities including reclining beds while the economy class cabin - Coral Zone - will have comfortable seating and additional onboard entertainment options. With 29 aircraft on firm order, including five Boeing 777-300ER, Etihad has also ordered 24 Airbus aircraft including four double-decker A380s.

In January 2006, the airline received the first Boeing 777-300ERs fitted with a state-of- the-art maintenance system to monitor in-flight health of the aircraft, and received the first A330 in February 2006. "By this year end, we will have 75 per cent of brand new aircraft and a combination of these aircraft on the Indian routes by the end of the year," he adds. The current load factor on the Indian routes averages approximately 70 per cent.

Also on the anvil is a guest recognition programme to be launched in August and a complete revamp of its Website. Etihad has expanded its network to Islamabad, Peshawar, Brussels, Toronto, Johannesburg and Manila and will add Manchester and Muscat this month.