[HD video below] Etihad Airways is to launch daily flights
between Abu Dhabi and Istanbul from 1 January 2013.
The Abu
Dhabi-based airline launched services to Istanbul, the largest
city in Turkey, with four non-stop flights a week in June 2009,
increasing to five services per week later that same year.
The daily service will support traffic growth
between Abu Dhabi and Turkey and connecting traffic to onward
destinations across the GCC, Indian Subcontinent, North Asia and
Australia.
To date, Etihad Airways has flown more
than 200,000 passengers on the route.
“A significant number of passengers on the route
travel between Turkey and Northeast Asia and Australasia. Further
supporting this traffic is Etihad Airways’ ongoing growth in Asia.
Tokyo, for example, will increase from five services per week to
daily in April 2013 and we also commenced Shanghai and Chengdu
services in the last year, enhancing connections to China,” said
James Hogan, Etihad Airways President & Chief Executive Officer. “We continue to
look at ways to enhance our codeshare partnership with Turkish
Airlines in order to develop our presence in Turkey. By putting
our EY-code on their four times weekly flights to
Abu Dhabi, in addition to their TK-coding on our flights on the
route, we bring strong feeds onto our network and theirs,
generating significant revenue for the Istanbul-Abu Dhabi route.”
The daily flights to Istanbul will be operated by
a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft, configured with 16 Pearl
Business class and 120 Coral Economy class seats.
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