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…
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?
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