CHENNAI: Come September and
Etihad
will tap into the huge demand for travel between India and America in a big way. While the airline’s
Abu Dhabi
hub,
Zayed International Airport
, has for years had US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility that lets flyers clear US immigration and customs there itself (thereby skip long queues on arrival), it is making some big changes to get a bigger pie of the lucrative
India-US market
.
The Zayed Airport recently got a new terminal. The US CBP is currently housed in the old terminal. “This September the CBP will move to the new terminal that will, among other things, have a dedicated first and business class lounge especially for pre-cleared (to US) passengers. Also we have deepened our partnership with two US carriers — American Airlines and Jet Blue. So our pre-cleared passengers will get seamless connections to a large number of cities in the shortest possible time starting at 45 minutes after flying into the US on our flights. The baggage will also be through checked-in to the final destination there with passengers not required to collect them in the first port of arrival in the US. Ditto on the way back,” Arik De, Etihad’s chief revenue & commercial officer, told TOI.
“With all the checks out of the way before you take-off, you can simply pick up your bags and go when you land in the US. Abu Dhabi has only CBP facility in the Middle East,” he added. Etihad currently flies to New York (JFK), Chicago, Boston and Washington. It plans to double its US presence before the end of this decade. With its pre-clearance USP, Etihad is eying the India market in a big way for filling up its flights to and from the US — a market where neighbours Emirates and Qatar Airways are both very strong in.
The airline is among the rare Gulf carriers that still has room, read bilaterals, for more flights to India. “Abu Dhabi has 50,000 seats per week to India of which along with Air Arabia Abu Dhabi about 42,000 seats are being used. We are increasing flights to Bengaluru (going from 14 to 18 weekly); Kolkata (going to 7 to 8 weekly) and starting four times weekly to Jaipur on June 16. The next round of expansion in India will be in January-March 2025 when we get more planes,” said Kolkata-born De, who is among the first Indian origin professionals to rise to top positions at a leading Gulf carrier.
Etihad is making more changes to attract more Indian passengers. For instance, he has changed something a majority of Gulf carriers don’t do — they don’t take meals from India for their flights back home as meals for both the route to India and back are uplifted at their hubs only. “Of the 11 cities in India that we fly to, meal is being uplifted from 8-9 of them in India only now. That ensures we serve fresh meals to passengers from India to Abu Dhabi,” said De, a Canadian national.
Etihad has 5-6,000 crew members, of which Indians, Moroccans and Romanians comprise the biggest numbers.
He does not see the long haul plans of IndiGo — which has ordered wide bodies now — and the growth of Air India as a challenge to Etihad. “A country of over 1.3 billion people with a booming economy, India certainly will have its own big airlines. There will always be market for both the nonstop product (that AI offers far and wide and IndiGo will offer from next year). For example, Mumbai-London has nonstops from AI, Vistara, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Yet we have 12% market share on that route,” De said.
Etihad currently has 90 aircraft. It aims to have a fleet of 165-170 planes — almost as many wide and narrow bodies — by 2030.
