Etihad Airways has announced plans to add a fourth daily service between Abu Dhabi and London Heathrow.
The new service will launch on October 27, departing Abu Dhabi at 1045, landing into Heathrow at 1450, with the return leg leaving the UK capital at 2105, landing back into Abu Dhabi at 0805 the following day.
The extra frequency will see a two-class B787-9 Dreamliner introduced on the route – the carrier’s other daily flights to and from London are served by the A380 superjumbo.
The Boeing aircraft will offer a total of 299 seats – 28 in business class and 271 in economy.
Etihad temporarily boosted its London service to as much as 35 flights per week over this summer, but this new frequency will operate year round.
The new service has been made possible by the use of a slot gained back from the now grounded Jet Airways, in which Etihad owns a 12 per cent share.
Commenting on the news Robin Kamark, Commercial Officer, Etihad Aviation Group Chief, said:
“The flagship Abu Dhabi to London route is tremendously popular with point-to-point business and leisure travellers, and those transiting beyond our hub and we recently boosted frequencies between the two cities to meet increased demand at peak travel times.
“Adding a fourth year-round flight will provide much needed capacity and optimised timings and easy connections to key destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.
“The new service demonstrates our commitment to the crucially important UK market, and ensures we provide our customers with all the benefits of a next-generation fleet across all 42 weekly departures to and from the United Kingdom.”
Etihad also offer twice daily flights between Abu Dhabi and Manchester, which since November last year have been served by the carrier’s Dreamliner aircraft.
