United Arab Emirates (UAE) national carrier, Etihad Airways, has revealed it will deploy its new Boeing 787-9 on its route between Abu Dhabi and Zurich, in Switzerland, from next month. The modern generation airliner will replace older Airbus A330-300 equipment on the daily route from July 6, 2015, the first to Europe to be flown by the carrier using its Dreamliners.
The airline has said that introducing the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Zurich made logical sense as there has been a strong interest from Swiss travellers for the airline’s latest product. The aircraft is configured to carry 235 passengers, with eight seats in First Class, 28 in Business Class and 199 in Economy Class, offering a total of 3,290 seats per week on the Abu Dhabi-Zurich route.
“This strategic decision to deploy the Dreamliner demonstrates our clear commitment to the Swiss market. Travellers from Switzerland will soon be able to experience the unparalleled levels of comfort, entertainment and inflight connectivity of this next-generation aircraft, being seamlessly connected through the Abu Dhabi hub to our rapidly expanding network,” said James Hogan, president and chief executive officer, Etihad Airways.
Etihad Airways’ order for two variants of the B787 (-9 and -10), is one of the world’s largest for the Dreamliner, totalling 71 aircraft. The airline currently operates the B787-9 to Brisbane, Washington DC, and from August 1, 2015 will also be using the type to Singapore. More destinations will be added as the airline takes delivery of more aircraft.
The UAE carrier offers a single daily flight to Zurich and which provides seamless onwards connections to numerous points across Europe on the networks of airberlin, Niki, Alitalia, Air Serbia and Etihad Regional. The Zurich service also offers connectivity to over 40 destinations in the Gulf region, Africa, Indian Subcontinent, North and South East Asia, and Australia via Etihad Airways’ hub in Abu Dhabi.
The route was launched in June 2014 and was among the initial destinations to be served by Etihad’s 787-9s ahead of their scheduled debut. According to data from OAG Schedules Analyser, the aircraft substituted for the A330-330 on six flights in March 2015.
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