UAE national carrier Etihad Airways has announced plans to launch daily flights from its hub Abu Dhabi to Tokyo starting from April 2 next year.

The Abu Dhabi-based airline was the first regional carrier to launch operations to the Japanese capital in March 2010, and with five non-stop flights a week to Tokyo’s Narita airport, said a statement from Etihad.

The airline has since carried approximately 160,000 travellers between the two cities, it added.

The daily service will support traffic growth between Abu Dhabi and Japan and connecting traffic to onward GCC destinations, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

The additional services will also improve the connectivity in Abu Dhabi by 40 per cent, said the statement.

Commenting on the launch, Etihad president and CEO James Hogan, said the airline’s increase to daily flights will see a further strengthening of the close trade, tourism and cultural ties between the UAE and Japan.

“Since launching, we have been proud to say that we were the first Middle Eastern carrier to operate to Tokyo, and as expected there has been a high volume of traffic on the route, particularly from business travellers,” Hogan stated.

The flight EY878 will take off from Abu Dhabi Airport at 9.50pm and land in Narita (Tokyo) the next day at 1pm. On return, the flight EY871 will leave Narita at 9.50pm aand arrive in Abu Dhabi at 4.35am.

Hogan said Japan had been, and would continue to be, a key market for Etihad and 'we look forward to playing an integral role in strengthening ties between the two countries.'

'Abu Dhabi’s tourism offering has also developed rapidly in the past two years, and we believe there are significant opportunities to grow the Japanese leisure travel market as well,' he added.

The Tokyo flights will be operated by a two-class Airbus A330-200 aircraft, configured with 22 Pearl Business class and 240 Coral Economy class seats.

The airline offers range of in-flight services tailored to the particular needs of  Japanese market. This includes a special menu, Japanese language in-flight entertainment content and cabin crew comprising Japanese nationals and Japanese speakers, he stated.-TradeArabia News Service