Etihad Airlines has just released information concerning the timings of its about to be started new destination namely DELHI, India.

DEL will be served 3 times a week nonstop from Abu Dhabi using an A 330-200 on Wed-Fri-Sun from DEC 1st.

EY 213 Dep AUH Wed 0310 Arr DEL 0735
EY 211 Dep AUH Fri-Sun 1150 Arr DEL 1615

EY 214 Dep DEL Wed 0855 Arr AUH 1120
EY 212 Dep DEL Fri-Sun 1730 Arr AUH 1955

KHI will also be served 4 times a week nonstop from Abu Dhabi using instead an ex AUH Govt aircraft namely a B 767-300ER. Information concerning KHI flight timings was released over 2 weeks ago. KHI begins from 1st NOV.

EY 221
Abu Dhabi Int'l (AUH), DEP 02:20
ARR Karachi, Pakistan 05:25
Non-stop Boeing 763 2h05min
Tuesday Thursday Saturday Sunday

Return flight :
EY 222
DEP KHI, Karachi 06:40
ARR AUH Abu Dhabi 08:10
Non-stop Boeing 763 2h30min

Tuesday Thursday Saturday Sunday

Therefore on Tues, Thurs, Sat and Sun...KHI pax can fly EY via its AUH hub to the following cities :

1. BEY on Thurs
2. DAM on Thurs & Sun
3. GVA and MUC on Tues-Thurs & Sat
4. LHR on Tues-Thurs-Sat with 5 hr transit at AUH
5. LHR on Sun with a 2 hr transit at AUH
6. AMM on Thurs & Sun

I have noticed that the network planners and timetable makers for Etihad Airways have screwed up big time when it comes for there being RETURN CONNECTIONS from EU-GULF via AUH to KHI.

Examples :

1. There is only 1 return flight from LHR to AUH on SAT that will connect with the AUH-KHI flight...there isnt any for Tues-Thurs and Sun. However all Gatwick-AUH flights (daily) will connect to KHI bound flights. In short if you fly EY from KHI to London, you will most likely have to fly KHI-LHR-LGW-KHI !!!

2. GVA-MUC via AUH to KHI connection is only avbl on Sundays !!!

3. Only once a week BEY-AUH-KHI connection is avbl...same goes for BAH-KHI via AUH.

4. AMM and DAM to KHI via AUH is twice a week avbl.

If EY want to lure KHI pax on their EU/London flights then they better have a free one day hotel offer in AUH otherwise this is a recipe for disaster until their network expansion and frequencies are increased to accomodate extra connections to KHI. They also better pray that they get a lot of O&D traffic between AUH-KHI-AUH which is currently dominated by PIA, Gulf Air and Qatar Airways.

[Edited 2004-10-25 09:32:20]