Etihad Airways has launched flights from its Abu Dhabi home-base to the American city of Chicago.

Flight EY151 took-off on Wednesday 2 September, landing 14 hours later at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

For the inaugural flight, Etihad operated its Airbus A340-600 aircraft in the iconic Formula 1 livery, with O’Hare airport fire trucks providing the traditional ‘water arch’ for the plane on the runway before it docked at terminal five.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said, “We are delighted to start services to Chicago which is our third major destination in North America.

Chicago is set to become a key part of our global flight programme with strong traffic expected from cities across our Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent network.”

With the launch of the three weekly flights to Chicago, Etihad Airways now flies to North America 13 times a week: daily to New York (JFK) and three times weekly to Toronto in Canada.

This will increase to 16 flights a week when the Chicago service goes to six per week at the end of October.

In July, Etihad and American Airlines announced a wide ranging codeshare agreement. The ‘EY’ code can now be seen on selected domestic and international services operated by American, and the ‘AA’ code has been placed on Etihad services to North America and Europe.

Travel Related Topics:

• etihad airways (9)
• ethihad airways (2)
• ETIHAD (1)
• pesawat etihad airways (1)

Etihad Airways has teamed up with Bangkok Airways in a new codeshare agreement. Under the deal, the Abu Dhabi-based airline will place its two-letter ‘EY’ code on Bangkok Airways’ flights between the Thai capital city and the popular islands of Phuket and Samui.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said, “Asia is an important market for Etihad and there is huge demand amongst our customers to travel beyond the Thai capital, which this new codeshare agreement now allows. We are expecting the new services to be extremely popular, particularly with leisure travellers looking for a luxury beach break on two of Asia’s most beautiful islands.”

Etihad Airways

Captain Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, the President of Bangkok Airways, added, “Koh Samui and Phuket are regarded as our favorite destinations for visitors worldwide. To cooperate with Etihad, as one of the leading and fastest-growing airlines in the world, not only increases access for passengers who would love to explore the beauty of these famous destinations, but also helps promote and accelerate tourism industry in Thailand. We strongly believe this new cooperation will be very successful.”

Since launching services to the Thai capital in April 2004, Bangkok has quickly established itself as one of Etihad’s most popular business and leisure travel destinations, with average seat factors last year exceeding 80%. The Abu Dhabi-based airline currently operates a double daily service to the capital city.

The codeshare services operate from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok and further on to Koh Samui with double daily flights while service to Phuket operates on a daily flight.