Etihad Airways, the flagship carrier of United Arab Emirates (UAE) has unveiled its first Airbus 380 and Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Etihad is all set to introduce the Boeing 787-9 in the India market in the first half of 2015. Speaking to Express Travelworld, Peter Baumgartner, chief commercial offier, Etihad Airways said, “It has taken us six years to complete our research and are innovation and launch our new products, the A-380 and the B787-9 Dreamliner. The initial routes which we are planning for our A-380 will be London, Sydney, New York and Paris and the Boeing 787-9 to Washington, Dusseldorf, Mumbai, Brisbane and Moscow by the end of 2015.”
When asked about plans to increase stakes in Jet Airways from the current 24 per cent, James Hogan, CEO, Etihad Airways said, “Currently we do not have any plans to increase the stakes. We also have no plans to partner with more airlines in near future. India is an important market for us and we are planning to expand our air bridge between Abu Dhabi and India.”
Speaking about the fuel consumption of the new aircraft, Baumgartner said, “Especially when we talk about the Dreamliner, it is built with composite material which makes it much lighter. These new aircraft consumes 30 per cent less fuel.”