Etihad to expand Indian operations

Etihad Airways, which is operating from four cities in India, plans to expand its services to eight more cities, especially in South India, to tap the huge Gulf traffic, a senior airlines official said on Thursday.

"We started flying to India in 2004 and are now looking to fly to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore, Kozhikode, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kolkata," Etihad Airways' India Country Manager Neerja Bhatia told PTI in Mumbai.

India is now the second fastest growing economy in the world and the demand for frequent travel to and from the Middle East will continue to increase in the foreseeable future, Bhatia said.

The Abu Dhabi-based airline services to southern India will provide an important link to the many thousands of south Indians living and working in the UAE and across the Middle East, she added.

"However, we have no plans to start a no-frill airline to take on Air India Express on the Gulf sector," Bhatia said.

Etihad commenced services to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi in May and June 2007 respectively and currently operates seven flights per week on each of these routes. It also operates daily flights on the Abu Dhabi-Mumbai route and has increased the frequency on its Abu Dhabi-New Delhi routes from three flights per week to a daily service from May 2007.