Etihad increases flights to Pakistan

Staff Report

KARACHI: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced five additional flights to destinations in Pakistan for this summer.

With this increase in frequencies and other schedule adjustments made across the network, swift and convenient onward connections to the airline's fast growing global network will improve dramatically. From 25th March, three flights will be added on the Karachi – Abu Dhabi route; whereas a total of 10 flights will be made available with a choice of departure time of 13:10 or 23:00. In August, one more flight will be added, resulting in a daily schedule with double daily flights on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The Islamabad services will expand with one additional flight, making it a total of 7 flights per week with afternoon and evening departures also available to the guests. The timings of the successful daily Lahore services will also be changed to offer a choice of afternoon and evening departures.

Timings of the Peshawar services have also changed slightly with 2 flights departing every week at 8:30 from 29 March onwards. As a result of the new schedules, connections to Africa and the Middle East will also improve for the Pakistan Guests with additional services added on these routes.

The growth over the past year has been especially strong: from four weekly flights to in February 2006 to 27 flights and three additional cities. These expansions are the result of putting our customers first and providing them with safe, swift and convenient travel alternatives.

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IS HOW ETIHAD CAN OFFER A DAILY SERVICE WHEN EMIRATES CANNOT.

I have always been led to believe that Emirates wants to offer daily sevices but is unable to do so due to the current bilateral agreements - but doesn't the bilateral agreements cover the UAE as a whole to include DXB AUH BAH MCT?

[Edited 2007-03-24 10:58:06]