The inaugural flight of Etihad Airways touched down at Singapore’s Changi Airport on 28 September 2007 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. It marked the commencement of Etihad Airways’ six weekly flights between Brisbane in Australia and…
The inaugural flight of Etihad Airways touched down at Singapore’s Changi Airport on 28 September 2007 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. It marked the commencement of Etihad Airways’ six weekly flights between Brisbane in Australia and Abu Dhabi, with a stopover at Singapore. This brings to total 12 weekly flights between Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Singapore Airlines also operates six flights on this sector.
At the official welcome ceremony held yesterday (3 October) for the national carrier of the UAE, Etihad Airways’ Mr Peter Baumgartner, Executive Vice President for Marketing and Product, and Mr Geert Boven, Executive Vice President for Sales and Services, were given a warm reception by officials from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), led by Mr Lim Kim Choon, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer.
Mr Boven said, “Etihad’s first flight from Abu Dhabi to Singapore’s Changi Airport marks a major milestone for the airline. We see a big opportunity in this market with the increasing commercial co-operation between Singapore and Abu Dhabi, and aim to meet the growing demand for air travel between the UAE and Singapore from business and leisure travellers.”
Besides Abu Dhabi, Singapore is also connected to Dubai in the UAE. At Changi Airport, there are now three airlines serving the Singapore-UAE route: Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Etihad Airways. They operate a total of 116 weekly flights between Singapore, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Mr Lim expressed at the ceremony that “The launch of Etihad Airways’ services comes at an opportune time of strong growth in passenger traffic between the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. Passenger traffic between our two countries reached 340,000 in 2006, representing an impressive growth of 20.3% compared with the previous year. This strong growth has continued into 2007, with passenger traffic increasing by 20.1% in the first 8 months of this year, compared to the same period in 2006.”
Mr Lim also encouraged the airline “to capitalise on this growth in passenger traffic, and consider mounting more services to Singapore.” He added, “… by mounting additional services beyond Singapore to Australia, Etihad Airways would also be wellpositioned to tap the robust growth in passenger traffic on this route.”
Etihad Airways is the fourth new airline to launch flight services to Changi Airport this year. September alone saw three airlines launching their maiden flights at Changi: Myanmar’s Air Bagan, Sri Lanka’s Mihin Lanka and Etihad Airways. Currently, Changi Airport is served by 81 airlines which connect Singapore to 192 cities in 59 countries via 4,220 scheduled weekly flights.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales. She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
