Etihad Airways vie for additional pie in Indian skies

Mumbai, Sep 6 (UNI) The United Arab Emirates' national air carrier, Etihad Airways is considering expand its network in India as the Gulf-based airline is holding talks with the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry.

Etihad, which at present operates 21 flights a week between Abu Dhabi and India, has plans to commence air services in eight other cities, including Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Calicut, Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Jaipur.

Airline Chief Executive James Hogan during his visit to New Delhi recently held parleys with Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel and senior ministry officials to press the need for granting access to the cities.

''Liberalisation of aviation markets is bringing multiple benefits for both consumers and regional economics alike and I hope that the Etihad Airways will be granted access to the emerging state of India,'' Mr Hogan added.

Mr Hogan further said there was burgeoning yet an unfulfilled demand for flights between India's emerging cities and Abu Dhabi.

Currently there is a cap of 28 flights for the Abu Dhabi-based airline as the inter-governmental air treaty between the two countries does not allow the airline to operate more than the above specified flights.

At present, Etihad operates one daily flight between Abu Dhabi-New Delhi and Abu Dhabi-Mumbai, three flights per week to Thiruvananthapuram and four flights to Kochi.

However, from October this year, both the Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram services will become daily services, taking the number of total flights to 28.

UNI