ETIHAD Airways has added four new major cities to its India route network - Chennai (Madras), Jaipur, Kolkata (Calcutta) and Kozhikode (Calicut).
The decision follows successful bilateral talks last month between the governments of the UAE and India, aimed at further liberalising flying links between the two countries. The Abu Dhabi-based airline is now finalising when these services will launch.
At present, Etihad operates daily flights from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai and New Delhi as well as to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. Etihad had set its sights on eight cities in India for new air services from its base in Abu Dhabi with traffic rights to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore and Hyderabad still to be gained.