Etihad Airways has revealed its 2024 summer flight program, which is expected to see a 25% increase in weekly departures compared to the same period in 2023.
Among the destinations added for the next summer season are four traditional European vacation hotspots, Malaga, Spain (AGP), Nice, France (NCE), and the Greek islands of Santorini (JTR) and Mykonos (JMK).
Etihad also confirmed the launch of previously announced services to Kozhikode (CCJ) and Thiruvananthapuram (TRV), in southern India, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) in Nairobi, Kenya, and Boston-Logan (BOS).
On top of that, Copenhagen (CPH), Denmark, will become a year-round destination and Athens (ATH), Colombo (CMB) and Bangkok (BKK) will see an additional number of frequencies. CPH and CMB will see a twice daily service while the Thai capital will operate up to 17 weekly frequencies.
During a Q&A session with journalists at the Dubai Airshow 2023, Etihad CEO, Antonoaldo Neves shared some of his plans for the continued growth of the airline.
In this informal conversation, at which AeroTime was present, Neves reaffirmed his optimistic outlook and appeared unfazed by the geopolitical tension in the region and the launch of new well-funded competitors in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
According to Neves, the one factor that could slow growth is aircraft supply chain constraints.
In this regard, Neves shared his satisfaction with the return to service of four of the Airbus A380 aircraft that Etihad had in storage (six more are still waiting to be activated, although the airline has no plans to do so for now).
He also revealed that Etihad plans to keep adding destinations and expects to end 2023 having added 12 new destinations to its network. However, Neves also noted that a significant share of capacity growth will come through added capacity in existing markets.
Neves mentioned that until quite recently only London was served more than once a day by Etihad, but this was changing. He noted that Milan and Madrid now have more than one daily frequency and the list will keep growing, with Barcelona being touted as a possible candidate for frequency increase in the near future.