By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which started its thrice a week service from Abu Dhabi to Thiruvananthapuram Wednesday, has made it clear that they will not venture into operating a budget airline.
Geert W. Boven, executive vice president of sales and services of Etihad Airways, told reporters here after the official launch of the airline that their policy is to operate a full service airline.
"We have no plans to operate a budget airline. It is not only the fares that matters because we would concentrate on the product through better facilities and services to our passengers. All passengers do not look into fares, they look for the product too," said Boven.
Etihad will fly from Abu Dhabi to Thiruvananthapuram every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. The flights form part of a major expansion programme of the airline in the Indian market, which includes making its New Delhi flights a daily service from Wednesday and the launch of flights to Kochi next week.
The new services will bring Etihad's India operations from 10 flights to 21 per week, which will increase to 28 flights per week in October with daily service from Abu Dhabi to Kochi and to Thiruvananthapuram.
"There is a huge demand for flights to Kerala from our customers across the world, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. Abu Dhabi airport would be the hub of our operations and our schedules are such that boarding an onward connecting flight would not be a problem," added Boven.
Launch prices for Etihad's flights to Thiruvananthapuram start from Rs. 13,860 for return economy class, Rs. 27,060 for business class and Rs. 43,450 for first class.
Etihad currently has a fleet strength of 25 aircraft.
"By the end of the year we will add six more wide bodied aircrafts to our fleet," said Boven.