Etihad to Open Third Route to Iraq

United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Etihad Airways has announced the launch of a four times weekly service from Abu Dhabi to the southern Iraqi city of Basra from April 15, 2012, its third destination in the country. The airline already offers a daily link to the capital Baghdad and a four times weekly service to Erbil in the north of the country, routes which commenced in the second quarter of 2010.

“Iraq’s surging economy represents a good opportunity to add even greater depth to our schedule,” said James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Airways. “Basra is an important industrial and transport hub but currently has only limited access to air services and we are delighted to be able to help improve these by investing in the local community.”

The airline is offering a schedule that provides morning and afternoon departure on the first two and last two days of the working week and this has been specially customised to suit expected traffic flows. Oil and gas represent the backbone of the local economy and major companies rotating staff in and out of Basra have already expressed strong interest in the new flights. Like its existing Iraqi routes, Etihad will use an Airbus A320 on the Basra route configured with 16 Pearl Business Class and 120 Coral Economy Class seats.

According to Etihad, last year more than 100,000 passengers were carried between Abu Dhabi and its two existing destinations in Iraq, with the Baghdad route enjoying strong growth. Many of these passengers were connecting at Abu Dhabi to other destinations across the airline’s network as the estimated O&D demand between Abu Dhabi and Iraq was much smaller in 2011, an estimated 28,000 passengers.

Emirates Airline, Gulf Air, Royal Jordanian and Turkish Airlines already provide non-stop links into Basra from the Middle East but there are currently no direct flights from any other parts of the world, highlighting the reason for the large numbers of transfer passengers on Etihad’s flights last year. An estimated 561,000 O&D passengers are believed to have travelled from Iraq into Europe last year, for example while approximately 121,000 passengers flew internationally from Basra during the same period.