Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, will launch a non-stop, four times a week service from Abu Dhabi to Hyderabad, the state capital of Andhra Pradesh in India, from November.

The service will become daily from the start of 2010.

The addition of Hyderabad brings the number of Indian destinations served by Etihad to seven and follows successful bi-lateral talks between the governments of the UAE and India, aimed at further liberalising flying links between the two countries.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said: “Etihad has made no secret of the fact that it wants to build up its Indian services and looks forward to expand its flying programme to the country with the launch of this exciting new service.”

“Hyderabad is a key Indian destination not currently served directly from Abu Dhabi,” he added.

“It therefore represents a great opportunity for our airline, one which I am sure will be warmly welcomed by the large Hyderabadi community living and working within the Emirate.

“As well as strong point-to-point traffic, we expect Hyderabad to make a significant contribution to the rest of our network, with particularly strong connecting traffic flows linking India to both North America and Europe.”

Sripathy, CEO of GMR Hyderabad International Airport, said: “We are delighted to see Etihad commence its new Hyderabad service in November. This will provide a wider choice for travellers wishing to fly to the UAE from our airport. We are sure that the new service will be well received and will continue to offer our support in helping Etihad further increase frequencies on the route.”

Etihad currently operates 38 flights a week from the UAE to India, with flights from Abu Dhabi to the commercial capital Mumbai, the national capital New Delhi, and also Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kochi (Cochin) and Kozhikode (Calicut) in the southern Indian state of Kerala, as well as Chennai (Madras).

The airline is also pushing to secure further traffic rights from Abu Dhabi to other India cities, including Bangalore.

Etihad will operate a two class Airbus A320 on the new Hyderabad route configured to carry 140 passengers with 20 in business class and 120 in economy class. - TradeArabia News Service