Etihad Airways Launches Daily Flights to Perth, Australia

Etihad Airways has launched daily non-stop flights between Perth and Abu Dhabi. Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is Etihad Airways’ fourth Australian gateway alongside Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

The new daily flights bring to 351 the total number of weekly services the airline offers between Australia and Abu Dhabi.

“Abu Dhabi and Perth are each popular business travel and holiday destinations – attracting 2.8 million and 7.3 million visitors respectively in 2013 – and we are already seeing a strong commercial response to the new route from travellers in the UAE and Western Australia,” said Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer, James Hogan. “We believe there is a significant opportunity to contribute to the state’s economic success by offering international tourists convenient connections to Western Australia – in 2013 alone tourism contributed $A7.7 billion to the West Australian economy through visitor spend.”

The Perth route will be operated by an Airbus A330-200 aircraft with 262 seats – 22 seats in Pearl Business Class and 240 in Coral Economy Class.

Brad Geatches, Chief Executive Officer of Perth Airport said, “The commencement of Etihad Airways’ Perth operations will add approximately 190,000 annual seats from Perth to the Middle East ... When the construction of the Domestic Pier at Perth Airport’s Terminal 1 is complete, Etihad Airways and its codeshare partner Virgin Australia will be co-located in one terminal enabling easy connections to Virgin’s domestic network, as well as regional connections in the nearby Terminal 2.”

Etihad’s partnership with Virgin Australia enables it to offer codeshare flights from Perth to 13 regional airports throughout the state of Western Australia. Travellers can connect to Etihad Airways’ international flights by flying with Virgin Australia from Albany, Broome, Busselton, Derby, Esperance, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kununurra, Karratha, Paraburdoo, Port Hedland, Ravensthorpe and Newman.

Virgin Australia will also place its VA code on Etihad Airways’ Perth-Abu Dhabi flights.

The new Perth flights augment Etihad Airways’ existing services to Australia – double daily to Sydney in conjunction with Virgin Australia, and daily to Brisbane and Melbourne.