A few days ago, I wrote about how Etihad Airways announced that it’s launching a new route between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Charlotte (CLT). The flight will commence in May 2026, and will operate 4x weekly, with Boeing 787s. The backstory of how this route came to be is quite something, as flagged by @xJonNYC…
In this post:
Charlotte Airport caught off guard by Etihad route
Forbes has the backstory of how Etihad went about making the decision to launch flights to Charlotte. As we all know, the route announcement coincided with President Trump’s visit to the UAE, where Etihad also announced a Boeing aircraft order (though with few details, and it’s only described as a “commitment” for now).
Generally speaking, the process of an airline launching a long haul flight to a new airport is a drawn out process. It takes months, and sometimes there are even years of discussions and negotiations between airports and airlines, especially given the incentives that are often provided.
That wasn’t the case here, and Charlotte Airport executives were even caught off guard by the announcement. According to Forbes, the airport only found out about the route one day before it was announced:
President Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi last week prompted Etihad Airways to reach out to Charlotte Douglas International Airport to say it wanted to served Charlotte.
The call to the airport was made Wednesday. It was the first time the airport heard of the airline’s interest. On Thursday, Trump visited Abu Dhabi. On Friday morning, Etihad announced that it intends to fly the Boeing 787 between its Abu Dhabi hub and Charlotte four times weekly starting May 4, 2026. Tickets went on sale Friday.
In an interview on Friday, Etihad’s Director of Network and Scheduling stated “it’s a good day to make the announcement,” and claimed the airline has “been looking at Charlotte for a few months.”
What a strange approach to adding a new route
This new route is a major development for Charlotte — it’s the airport’s first route to Asia and the Middle East, the airport’s longest nonstop flight, and also the airport’s only scheduled Boeing 787 flight. I’m not sure what’s stranger:
- That Etihad executives only started discussions with the airport a day before making the announcement
- That Charlotte Airport executives weren’t doing more to engage in conversations with Gulf carriers about launching flights to the airport
As you’d expect, “matchmaking” between airports and airlines is big business, and there are even conferences for these kinds of things (as Denver Airport executives can attest to). 😉 I’ve asked a few people directly familiar with international route planning about this, and all of them said this was strange, and that ordinarily there would be much more drawn out discussions than this.
So I’m not really sure what to make of this. I’m also not sure what the connection is between Trump and Charlotte. Was Charlotte just the next US airport that Etihad executives were targeting? If that was the case, you’d think that there would have been existing discussions, since that’s standard.
Frankly, this story just kind of makes the Etihad team seem a bit disorganized, or something, no? You’d think that maybe they could’ve done a bit more negotiating in their favor with a bit more time.
Bottom line
Etihad recently announced plans to launch Charlotte flights, coinciding with Trump’s visit to the UAE. While it’s not unusual to see some announcements connected to a high profile visit, what’s strange is that Etihad only made contact with Charlotte Airport for the first time one day before the announcement was made.
I don’t think there are many long haul routes that progress from the first discussion between the airport and the airline to being on sale within around 48 hours. It sure seems like some incentives from the airport or local community might have been left on the table here.
What do you make of the way Etihad is adding Charlotte flights?
What you did not notice - Land acquired by trump real estate development next to CLT ( to be announced later with investment from Abu Dhabi investment fund ) - building a trump tower !!!
Now you know why this route :)
I've said it before and I'll say it again: this doesn't make much sense, strategically. CLT may be a growing market, but it's not one of our largest nor is it a particularly international hub that would provide a lot of feed. Would B of A (and other local employers) have enough business to support such a route? I tend to doubt it.
As for Etihad, they don't fly to many of our largest...
I've said it before and I'll say it again: this doesn't make much sense, strategically. CLT may be a growing market, but it's not one of our largest nor is it a particularly international hub that would provide a lot of feed. Would B of A (and other local employers) have enough business to support such a route? I tend to doubt it.
As for Etihad, they don't fly to many of our largest markets (such as LAX. DFW, SFO, IAH, MIA, etc) yet they're going with CLT which is really a mid-sized area. EY does serve ATL already, so no feed from there and PHL, so anyone who would connect into a flight to Abu Dhabi from AA would probably connect there and not in CLT. And for those who espouse CLT's growth somehow justifying this, why not BNA or AUS then? Similar sized cities that aren't on the radar.
This makes absolutely no sense to me; even Emirates hasn't filled in the dots on the map enough to think about the likes of CLT (or BNA or AUS or many other similar sized markets).
Just realized that it's Qatar that serves PHL and not EY. Still, I don't see that as anything that changes my opinion. Geographically, there's nothing about CLT that makes it attractive to connect to for an overseas flight from almost anywhere when you consider our other major airports.
Good analysis but then why was TK seriously considering it? There must some demand to the Middle East or Africa.
Interesting you did not mention about Etihad's codeshare or partnership with American, so actually I do not think it is as strange as many might think.
Perhaps EY caught wind of the rumour that AA or QR wanted to fly from CLT?And didn't want to be locked out of the market?
TK did publicly announce they were gonna to fly to CLT too.
Charlotte is an under appreciated and under valued market. Etihad figured it out for quite some time, and pounced on it before Qatar, Emirates and American woke up. I believe the next major route for Charlotte is to/from Asia. Wake up American before it’s too late.
Also an AA hub in CLT. I have struggled with a screwy AA route on guest awards this year, maybe owning the route. American is maybe overextended.
Ben - I don't think it reflects Etihad being unprepared or unprofessional. They're the national carrier of the UAE, their country just secured a deal with the US during President's visit, and some landing slots in CLT (which may or may not turn into a route opening - Etihad might want to re-sell these to another carrier) are probably a part of the deal.
Only three airports in the US -- JFK, LGA and DCA -- are slot restricted, and four others -- LAX, SFO, ORD and EWR -- have other slot controls. I doubt CLT slots have any resale value. If there was any value, the USAirways executives now at AA would have sold them away years ago.
Well, Etihad is a good airline. CLT is kind of weird, but it is also this city that is fairly humble and good for men in Western Carolina.
I am presently trying to describe the total failure of LAX in terms that include San Francisco, but I'm routing around LAX to SFO. How is the Minetta airport lately?
Clearly not a business decision, rather the usual dodgy backdoor dealing that the country involved does.
which country lol
Both of the involved countries.
I feel pity for the people who are buying a ticket to Charlotte now, as they route will most likely never operate. I can see how this discussion went: CEO of Etihad had a meeting with all department heads asking them to come up with some investment opportunities in the USA. "Let's order some planes! -- But not too firm, because we're not sure we actually want to do it." "Let's fly to XYZ --...
I feel pity for the people who are buying a ticket to Charlotte now, as they route will most likely never operate. I can see how this discussion went: CEO of Etihad had a meeting with all department heads asking them to come up with some investment opportunities in the USA. "Let's order some planes! -- But not too firm, because we're not sure we actually want to do it." "Let's fly to XYZ -- But let's make it a smaller destination so we can cancel it due to lacking demand." Probably some other departments came up with similar, smaller, "investments" to appease Trump.
Exactly.
Ben has done a service by following up on the route being a surprise with background which suggests it will never happen.
If Etihad set fares high enough to cover the costs of rebooking with another airline then it doesn't even cost them anything.
I actually think this fast decision making is probably their greatest strength. Instead of over analyzing, they went quick to the market to probably seize some favors with the Trump visit and announce a route that clearly was on their shortlist. They have always maintained east coast USA as where they see more opportunities and also said there was one more in USA coming in 2025.
Personally, I would commend their commercial and network leadership....
I actually think this fast decision making is probably their greatest strength. Instead of over analyzing, they went quick to the market to probably seize some favors with the Trump visit and announce a route that clearly was on their shortlist. They have always maintained east coast USA as where they see more opportunities and also said there was one more in USA coming in 2025.
Personally, I would commend their commercial and network leadership. They learned that following QR and EK would never work, and they will play second fiddle. So, they are going out there, and tearing the rule book, and doing things their own way. So far, the financial results speak volumes of their agile decision making. It has been 3 years of good results, and only time will tell if it will continue.
I remain impressed.
Having a flight that doesn't land for 9 months is not "fast" at all.
It's a rushed decision.
Makes sense for the airline. Cheap landing fees, a good market, forcing CLT’s hand by announcing and selling tickets, customs preclearance at the origin so they don’t have to deal with the 1pm customs opening time nonsense at CLT. Also, CLT is not slot restricted, so it’s not like they had to negotiate landing slots. The airport constantly talks about growth, but that’s adding runways and taxiways, and doing jack with the number of gates....
Makes sense for the airline. Cheap landing fees, a good market, forcing CLT’s hand by announcing and selling tickets, customs preclearance at the origin so they don’t have to deal with the 1pm customs opening time nonsense at CLT. Also, CLT is not slot restricted, so it’s not like they had to negotiate landing slots. The airport constantly talks about growth, but that’s adding runways and taxiways, and doing jack with the number of gates. A brand new airline and route with pre-cleared pax - it forces CLT to roll out the red carpet. Am sure AA knew and kept it quiet too. They basically did what Turkish failed with by going the traditional route of negotiating with CLT.
It sounds to me that now the negotiations will start. They’ve got a full year before the flight starts. This could be the negotiation time. Maybe even to the point service does not start next spring. It’s an interesting situation. Maybe MCO could be next!
Every time I read trip reports from people in the Charlotte region, I'd be surprised? aghast? at how much they had to trek to take longhaul flights. This is gonna be the Lenovo express lol
I feel like this post wouldn't exist if it was Kamala Harris going to the Middle East and such a thing was announced. But the basics of this doesn't rest on the US side. I believe Etihad would catch an...
Every time I read trip reports from people in the Charlotte region, I'd be surprised? aghast? at how much they had to trek to take longhaul flights. This is gonna be the Lenovo express lol
I feel like this post wouldn't exist if it was Kamala Harris going to the Middle East and such a thing was announced. But the basics of this doesn't rest on the US side. I believe Etihad would catch an opportunity to launch something new to complete and expand, especially if EK and QR haven't been doing it. They can always cancel it a year or two later or use other methods to wind it down (keep the route officially up but constantly cancel flights) - that's how adults supposedly handle things.
This makes sense since they have a relationship with AA and fuel is cheap for a ME airline. It is harder justifying all the service from the US to Brisbane now which isn't a hub and burns a lot JetA to get there.
Trump won’t stop WINNING
correction: Whining
EVANDER KEEPS WINNING!
Etihad's CCO Arik De and his network planning team but more so the CCO continues to make a laughing stock of himself in the eyes of the aviation community. Unlike Atlanta which has a decent demand base to a variety of destinations in EY's network, Charlotte on the other hand only has India. Atlanta though wont be able to fill an A350-1000 year round for Etihad and they will learn this the hard way.
...Etihad's CCO Arik De and his network planning team but more so the CCO continues to make a laughing stock of himself in the eyes of the aviation community. Unlike Atlanta which has a decent demand base to a variety of destinations in EY's network, Charlotte on the other hand only has India. Atlanta though wont be able to fill an A350-1000 year round for Etihad and they will learn this the hard way.
This CLT announcement follows the same illogical trend as its others announced previously in particular Hanoi with B789s, Krabi with 8 weekly A321s and Chiang Mai with 4 weekly A321s and the most bewildering Nairobi double daily from 1st December.
If Qatar and Turkish could fill a 777 or an A350-1000 in Atlanta, Etihad can to.
What's most shocking is that Etihad has not hired this blog's participants to run it's strategic planning and marketing departments.
Until a few years ago, Etihad might've been better off doing just that, considering the massive amount of money that they were losing on Hogan.
First mover advantage is a thing.
Obviously market demographics matter when making a route work. The big comparison I see people making is ATL. But ATL already sees service from QR, TK, and tons of one stop connections thanks to Delta's ATL hub.
I guess this is an interesting development in the story, but CLT growth is real. That alone lends some credibility to making it work.
Not shocked at all. I bet the CLT airport people had to google where Abu Dhabi is on a map. They don't offer much in the way of incentives and have shown very little interest in pursuing such service. Their talks fell apart with Turkish because they couldn't make AA move some narrow body times around to open up a customs gate.
This is interesting information. TK used to list Charlotte as a future route and they no longer do. Same with PHL. I wonder if AA is playing hardball with airports if they allow TK flights.
CLT person here- - remembering seeing a Turkish jet in CLt when landing one time - I was like -yes, it's happening. Im sure AA was happy to flex their CLT power over a STAR carrier! This announcement is the real deal though. CLT demand for these flights is real and hopefully this will inspire maybe a DOH flight too. Having AA partners and OW alliance carriers (realize Etihad is not OW) makes more sense than Turkish
Sigh
But will there be award seats for sale. . . Let's be honest, that's all that matters.
For Pre-clearance (at Abu Dhabi) and connections to AA. Might be more desirable to land in CLT as an AA hub vs adding flights to IAD, which doesn't have much of an AA presence. Not sure where else on the East Coast can beat this. ATL is busy and skewed towards Delta. Not the best time for Newark. BWI, no. JFK is already busy.
It’s indeed not usual but has happened before. MAF was noticed only 48 hours before Delta announced 3x daily to Austin. Yes there could have been subsidy here too but sometimes airlines value other things (such as timing?) higher
I actually think it may work out well, given Charlotte has a sizable south asian community and theres no competing flights to the middle east so will be of convenience.
What is most surprising about this announcement is that Etihad is launching service to Atlanta in July 2025. Why announce service to another city, Charlotte, only 250 miles away just 9 months later?
I understand the American connection, but Qatar could not make Philadelphia work, so does EY think that Charlotte is realistic in the long term?
I wouldn't be surprised to see either ATL axed in favour of CLT, but the catchment...
What is most surprising about this announcement is that Etihad is launching service to Atlanta in July 2025. Why announce service to another city, Charlotte, only 250 miles away just 9 months later?
I understand the American connection, but Qatar could not make Philadelphia work, so does EY think that Charlotte is realistic in the long term?
I wouldn't be surprised to see either ATL axed in favour of CLT, but the catchment just isn't there for two flights in 2026, regardless of how booming the Southeast is just now.
They would probably axe Charlotte over Atlanta. Atlanta is bigger and has more demand.
It wasn't that QR couldn't make PHL work, it was that they could have AA serve PHL-DOH traffic and 2 QR aircraft could then be deployed elsewhere in the network.
Adding onto @Nolan, American had a flight to Doha out of JFK. However, that flight was doing quite poorly because most people preferred to fly with Qatar on that route (the exception were AA elites who could get upgrades, and that route on AA was amazing for upgrades). One reason AA was doing poorly was because QR had 2 other daily flights on that route. By moving that flight to PHL and taking over Qatar's...
Adding onto @Nolan, American had a flight to Doha out of JFK. However, that flight was doing quite poorly because most people preferred to fly with Qatar on that route (the exception were AA elites who could get upgrades, and that route on AA was amazing for upgrades). One reason AA was doing poorly was because QR had 2 other daily flights on that route. By moving that flight to PHL and taking over Qatar's PHL flight, AA was the only operator on that route which meant better loads for them (because people cannot book a QR flight on that route for a similar price, meaning they are stuck with AA or a connection). Meanwhile, QR replaced AA's JFK frequency, so bascially the aircraft freed up from PHL essentially just switched over to JFK. So that shuffle worked out better for American. Meanwhile, PHL residents no longer have a nonstop flight on Qatar Airways, so I'd consider that a negative for them. But all things considered that actually seems to have been a very smart solution in my opinion.
Still wonder when Qatar is going to “retaliate” and add a flight here. But does this mean EY is getting no local subsidies? Somewhat surprising.
Whether EY launches the route and flies it by this time next year, it doesn’t need subsidies from CLT/North Carolina as the airline is basically a state enterprise/pet for the UAE/Abu Dhabi’s ruling family. And nowadays what they want to do is to publicly kiss up to Trump/Trumpublicans so as to get their way on things even more than they already do.
That strategy worked for the Qataris, so it's well worth a shot.
Not sure why this is so confusing. They partner with American. They wanted to announce a route to support "America". Here's the most viable one. Will prob be axed after a while. Remember - the airline is an instrument of the state in the Middle East. It's just politics.
@ Joe -- What's confusing is that it wasn't a longer negotiation process, since the airline could've likely gotten some significant incentives. It's like viewing a house that's for sale and saying "I want it, will you take asking?" It's not smart business (well, unless it's a market where houses sell for over asking).
Ben- I don’t think this was a business decision, but rather a political one. So, smart business kinda goes out the window here.
Eithad is not a business !!
The airline is an extension of the state. Not everything has to be optimized financially for the airline to benefit those in power or its national interests.
@Ben
Assuming that it was done to impress Trump with no intention of actually happening, the less effort put into it the better from Etihad's point of view.
Like "impressing" a date by saying will buy house for asking, but with no intention of following through.
Perhaps Constellis/Blackwater — affiliated with Erik Prince — will be sending a lot of its mercenaries/employees on the EY flights from Charlotte to Abu Dhabi and then perhaps elsewhere in the Middle East and/or Africa. The UAE really loves Trumpublicans and American mercenaries (and even assassins).
you need help
The UAE is what the UAE is. The ruling family of Abu Dhabi and of the federation of the UAE have a multi-decades long preference for Republicans and hostility to Democrats. They also have a history of doing business with NC-based ops for Erik Prince/Blackwater/Constellis mercenaries and are currently setting to run up ties more. Which of these facts do you dispute and on what basis do you dispute these facts?
A). the fact that you are terminally full of crap and always post abject overwrought nonsense like this
and
B). The *ridiculous* notion that your delusional ravings on this would have anything whatsoever with this route being started/run/succeeding etc.
You need help.
Love your logic. Wait, I mean reactionary illogic....
Aren't you the guy who posts nothing about standing w/ Ukraine on his X page (not that I disagree with that) but then simps for Israel and then considers anything even so slightly pro-Palestinian to be equated with Hamas?
I’ll help as he needs it. JonP is a pro-Ukraine/anti-Putin type who has long been a GW Bush- and Netanyahu-loving Republican. He consistently supported Republicans, most of which have since shown themselves to be dyed in the wool Trumpublicans when push comes to shove.
Seems like he doesn’t like Trump, but it seems to have more to do with a long-standing more personal grudge against Trump rather than any real stand against the Trumpublicans who enable Trump.
Sounds good. 4x per week lots of work.
Another one of those flash in the pan routes that'll be removed from schedule in a year or less.
Right - more phoney bullshit. What are the odds it never happens come next year.
That would mean it never launches. Which is a possibility if say the route to ATL bites the dust in its stead.