Abu Dhabi’s Etihad ending flights to Iran, Uganda next year

Etihad Airways will scrap flights to Iran and Uganda next year, the latest routes to be dropped as it pursues a strategy review.

The Abu Dhabi airline, one of the three Gulf super connectors, has spent over a decade building a global network that links passengers travelling between East and West.

Etihad will stop flying to Iran’s capital Tehran on January 24 and Uganda’s Entebbe on March 25, the airline said on Tuesday.

The five weekly Tehran services are to be reduced to twice a week between December 25 and January 23, before it is suspended entirely on January 24.

An Etihad spokeswoman declined to say why Tehran was being suspended, but said affected passengers could switch to an alternative travel date between December 25 and January 23 or be refunded.

Entebbe is being dropped after a commercial review of the route’s performance, an Etihad statement said.

Etihad stopped flying to San Francisco in October, and has also announced it would cut flights to Dallas-Fort Worth and India’s Jaipur next year.

Etihad has blamed American Airlines for making its Dallas route no longer commercially viable after the US carrier ended their codeshare deal.

Etihad, along with Emirates and Qatar Airways which make up the three major Middle East airlines, relies on connecting millions of passengers a year through the Gulf, which means ending one route can have a knock-on effect on its network.

The majority of their passengers do not start or finish their journey at their respective Gulf hubs.

The airline launched the strategy review in 2016 but has made few details public about it. This year, it sold its stake in a European regional carrier and stepped away from investments in Air Berlin and Italy’s Alitalia which both subsequently filed for administration.

Etihad’s long-serving group chief executive James Hogan left the airline this year, and will be replaced by Britain’s top defence buyer Tony Douglas next month.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad appoints Tony Douglas as group CEO

Douglas, who joins Etihad from Britain’s Ministry of Defence, has previously served as chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s airport company.