Etihad plans to spread its wings across India

Sharjah-based budget carrier Etihad plans to spread its wings across India with a view to benefit from the growing air passenger traffic in the world's second-fastest growing major economy.

The airline is looking at adding a few more destinations in India besides adding capacity from Delhi and Mumbai, Etihad Airways sources said here.

"India, a fast-growing market, is very important for us. We are looking at a progressive but very reasonable increase in our services in years to come," they told PTI.

The airline is evaluating to add cities such as Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jaipur to its network, if it gets the required regulatory approvals, in the current calender year, they said.

"In addition, Goa is also on Etihad's radar as another prospective destination. We are also mulling to reallocate some of the existing seats to the Mumbai and Delhi to scale up frequency from the two cities," sources said.

Most of the Gulf airlines operating out of India had huge seat capacity under the air traffic rights, they said, adding "We are the one with least number of seats."

Under the UAE-India air traffic rights bilateral agreement, Etihad can operate 13,330 seats per week on the India-Sharjah route.

"UAE is negotiating with the government to increase the present allocation of seats. We hope it happens sooner than later," they said.

According to an estimate, nearly 40% of international air traffic from India is to the Gulf and West Asian countries.

Last week, Etihad Airways Chief Executive James Hogan along with some senior executives had called on Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi and senior Ministry officials. The airline, however, termed it as a courtesy call.

As a part of its business strategy, the airline had last August appointed Bollywood star Katrina Kaif as its brand Ambassador.

Besides, it recently announced the extension of its luxury chauffeur services in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

With the addition of the low-cost carrier's newly launched operations to Bangalore, Etihad now flies to eight Indian destinations with 49 flights a week. The other seven cities are New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kozhikode, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.