Etihad Airways has been on quite the expansion kick lately, as the airline is trying to grow its destinations at a record pace. We’ve seen the airline add quite a few new routes in recent months, though here’s perhaps the single most concentrated regional expansion we’ve seen.
Continue reading: Etihad Massively Expands Mainland China Flights, Goes From One Route To Six
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hard to take this seriously when Gulf carriers can't really operate properly right now.
A bigger announcement would be restoring full, stable service than this route expansion.
They've flown to Shanghai and Guangzhou before... so more of a service resumption.
They may have flown to some of the others.. I cant remember. But Shanghai and Guangzhou are definitely resumptions.
Etihad loves saying they're starting service to all these new cities... when often it's just a resumption to a place they've already served. For example, they also just announced 'new' service to Dhaka.... while they've been in and out of that market many times in the last 15 years.
I'd recommend not just taking what they say in their press releases and thinking a bit more critically.
It doesn’t make any sense flying to HKG, CAN, and SZX at the same time. It’s like flying to JFK, EWR, and LGA at the same time.
typo here?
Etihad increases China from 28 to 35 weekly flights
shouldn't it be increase of 28 to 35?
Tell me your an American who has no geographic knowledge without telling me you’re an American with no geographic knowledge.
Actually, there are many airlines that fly to both EWR an JFK (British, Lufthansa, Air France, Emirates, Turkish etc...), and LGA as compariosn does not make sense. HKG to SZX is roughly same distance as JFK to EWR, and if you want to put third airport in, similar distance as SZX is to CAN, that would be Philadelphia, and British (LHR) and Air Lingus (DUB) are doing all 3 US airports
Also cosnider that this area (SZX,CAN, HGK) has huge population, much bigger than NYC + Philadelphia
I'm not sure I understand Etihad's growth strategy these past couple of years. They recently massively downsized to become profitable after being loss-makers for years. Now, they are massively expanding again. Are they just making the same mistake, or are they truly a profitable company making sound business decisions? CLT (Charlotte) is my home airport and I'm thrilled that they are here. But, seriously, Charlotte? Right after they just expanded to ATL?!
It wouldn't be a crazy idea if you had noticed how many Chinese are visiting the Gulf region for both business and personal reasons. However, whether that's going to continue or not, with the war in the Middle East, is anyone's guess.
Although this was nicely timed with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi's visit to China this week, it seems more like Etihad was backed into a corner and forced to fly their entitlements per the China/UAE air service agreement or risk losing them to Emirates. Emirates launched 7x/week to both HGH and SZX last year and made it no secret that that wanted more. They recently hinted that Etihad wasn't using a large chunk of their entitlement so it should be given to Emirates who would provide more value. Etihad does poorly in China, so this level of expansion going to be a disaster from day one. The lack of network planning skills and just following in Emirates' footsteps is the most embarrassing of all this. I think Arik and Antonoaldo are starting to ruin their welcome and need to find another flag carrier to scam with their intrinsic lack of being able to run a sustainably profitable airline long-term.
Hasan, is 'BZ' your handle for travel blogs? I donno, man, maybe Twitch is the better platform.
Respectfully disagree, Creditian. And, saying this as an NYC resident. Like, I'm glad many international airlines fly to both EWR/JFK (LGA isn't for widebodies these days). So, please, EK, AF, LH, etc. come to both, come to all. It actually makes good sense.
Yeah, for real, even the Chinese may not wanna get stuck in Abu Dhabi right now...
Shanghai 24.85 million
Guangzhou 18.98 million
Hangzhou 12.52 million
Chengdu 21.47 million
Shenzhen 17.99 million
If even 1 percent of the population has some disposable income or a business need to fly to or through the Middle East, then the planes might be full.
"The above is limited to mainland China, and doesn’t include services to Hong Kong (HKG) and Taipei (TPE)."
How is Taipei relevant here...? Unless the sentence came directly from EY's press release that was worded so as not to enrage Xi...
They are actually two different things. With the NYC situation, it is only one super city, but the HKG case, it is 3 super cities, though they are close to each other, there are many difficult barriers to cross. CAN is actually quite far away, it is only close to these two as high speed train connecting them. SZX and HKG have a border that many people requiring a visa to visit, so technically not that easy. Even there are some visa free methods to cross, it takes way more time than you think.
Taiwanese here. "One China" or not, Taiwan is often grouped with Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China as the "Greater China" area anyway.
Expanding destinations in China .why bring Taiwan into this? They are two separate countries.
I disagree with your cooling off comment. I think the demand for outbound from China to many international destinations remains strong, but the return has cooled off.
Interesting that HK is not mentioned because the airline flies to both Guangzhou CAN and Shenzhen SZX. I wonder what the benefits with MU are and if it only applies to that airline or if it applies to all skyteam airlines as a passenger.
I totally understand they need to time the arrivals and departure for connecting traffic via Abu Dhabi, but I'm still a bit surprised to see all of these flights involve the aircraft sitting on the ground in China for between 11 and 14 hours. Wasn't one of the key factors in their billion dollar losing past their terrible aircraft utilisation, and in particular many aircraft sitting in Asia racking up parking fees all day while not earning any revenue? Hope they're not slipping back to old mistakes
Well? Good for them .
Also Ben Schlapigg I think there needs to be an understanding that Chinese big three arent making profits because domestic competition with HSR. International Flights are the ones saving their asses if anything.
Also we are in BIG 2026. Not 2023. Travel has actually improved there at least to the country. Western world or more precisely "the USA" isnt the only country to exist. Not every country is fixated on "China bad" narrative as the USA is.
Etihad serves a massive cohort of Africans who dont have reservations really going anywhere at all.
As for as travel from China( Chinese tourists). That will come back to normal by 2027 I believe?.
I was having the same thinking too before but holy shit I was wrong. I wrote another answer before this actually. But I didnt send that link.
This is Aussie situation only though.
This article is not relevant though to Etihad.
From the recent Simple flying video I saw of Etihad Beijing Abu dhabi flight I saw a load of Africans on that flight . This could be for them too.
Yes but if you read in Etihad website it is clearly mentioned "Mainland China". There is no Taiwan or HKG mentioned there.
So ? I dont get what Ben is thinking.