Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, strengthened its presence in East Africa today with the launch of new services between Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Entebbe, in central Uganda.
Inaugural
flight EY645 departed Abu Dhabi at 7.50am and touched down at Entebbe
International Airport on schedule at 12.50pm, where it was welcomed by a
delegation consisting of senior representatives from the airport, government
officials and local dignitaries.
Operated
by a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft with 16 Business Class and 120 Economy
Class seats, the new service is designed to provide business and leisure
travellers with a direct four-times-per-week service between Entebbe and Abu
Dhabi, with convenient onward connections to key destinations in the GCC
region, Europe, Indian Subcontinent, North Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia.
The new
service also provides convenient access to the nearby Ugandan capital of
Kampala, one of the fastest growing cities on the African continent and the
centre of trade and commerce in the country. Uganda has a total population of
nearly 40 million, and is the world's second most populous
landlocked country after Ethiopia.
James
Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, said: “Uganda
is one of the continent’s fastest-growing business and tourism destinations,
and the launch of
services to Uganda is consistent with our strategy of targeting areas of strong
growth in emerging markets.
The UAE is a major trading partner
with Uganda and our new
point-to-point services strengthen the two-way flow of trade and commerce
between the two countries. The flights are also scheduled to offer convenient onward connections,
catering to strong traffic flows between Uganda and key destinations across our global
network, such as Ahmedabad and Mumbai in India or Beijing and Shanghai in
China.
Not only does this service provide
our guests with direct access to an exciting new business and tourism
destination, it also further strengthens our presence in East Africa and across
the African continent” he added.
Etihad Airways currently operates scheduled
services to eight other destinations in Africa and the Indian Ocean, including:
Cairo, Casablanca, Dar es Salaam (Dec
2015), Johannesburg, Khartoum, Lagos, Nairobi, and Mahé in the Seychelles.