Abu Dhabi’s Etihad to launch fourth daily service to London

Abu Dhabi airline Etihad Airways has announced plans to launch a fourth daily service to London Heathrow in October.

The year-round daily service between the two capitals follows the introduction of additional seasonal services this summer.

Launching on October 27, the new service EY25 will depart Abu Dhabi at 10.45am, arriving in London Heathrow at 2.50pm. The return service EY18 will depart the UK capital at 9.05pm and reach the UAE capital at 8.05am the next day.

Etihad said one of the four services will be operated with a two-class Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. The aircraft is configured with 299 seats including 28 in business class and 271 in economy.

The three other services are operated by Etihad’s 486-seat Airbus A380s, which features luxury cabin The Residence, nine seats in first class, 70 in business class and 405 in economy. These include 80 economy ‘space’ seats with a seat pitch of up to 36 inches.

Robin Kamark, commercial officer, Etihad Aviation Group Chief, said: “The flagship Abu Dhabi to London route is tremendously popular with point-to-point business and leisure travellers, and those transiting beyond our hub and we recently boosted frequencies between the two cities to meet increased demand at peak travel times.

“Adding a fourth year-round flight will provide much needed capacity and optimised timings and easy connections to key destinations across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia.

“The new service demonstrates our commitment to the crucially important UK market.”

Along with the four daily flights into the UK capital, Etihad Airways also operates two daily Boeing 787 Dreamliner services between Abu Dhabi and Manchester.

UAE airlines have been increasings services to the UK to meet growing demand on the route.

Dubai airline Emirates launched a second daily flight to London Stansted from July 1 after launching flights to the airport in June last year.

Emirates currently operates 140 weekly flights to the UK including six services a day to Heathrow, three daily to London Gatwick and Manchester, two daily to Birmingham, Glasgow and London Stansted, and a daily service to Newcastle and Edinburgh.