Etihad Airways eyes more expansion in India

Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is looking at expanding its operations to India in the next few years।

James Hogan, chief executive of Etihad Airways, said India is one of their key global markets।"Currently, Etihad flies to four Indian destinations - Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram - and we would like to double this in the next few years in order to satisfy the huge demand from Indian customers across Etihad's flight network that includes Britain, Canada and South Africa," Hogan said।It flies to a total of 44 destinations in the Middle East, Europe, North America, Africa and Asia।The airline started its services to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram last month, and since then passenger figures on both the routes have averaged more than 90 percent across economy and business class।Etihad, which also operates daily flights to Delhi and Mumbai, plans to start flight services to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad, besides increasing its frequency into the two Kerala airports.In a related development, Etihad was awarded four industry accolades recognising the airline's progressive web strategy, which has been enabled by Indian IT major Infosys Technologies.