The UAE's national airline, Etihad Airways celebrated the launch of its three new routes to Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar by hosting more than 100 dignitaries, business leaders and trade journalists from Pakistan here on Monday.
The Pakistani delegation was hosted by senior Etihad officials and regional managers at the Al Dar VIP lounge at Abu Dhabi International Airport
Talking to Business Recorder, Regional General Manager, Asia Pacific Charles Phelps Penry said that Pakistan has the largest number of Etihad routes with 18 flights a week to four destinations, including the daily Karachi service which opened in November 2004.
He said that Pakistan is a big market for the Middle East as there are 700,000 Pakistanis in the UAE alone, but beyond that Pakistanis are working in other Middle Eastern and European countries as well.
"What we are going to do is to offer connections and services to people travelling to and from Pakistan via Abu Dhabi and that is why we have brought four major Pakistani destinations in our network" he added.
He said that there was a lot of tourism potential in Pakistan and Etihad Airways would be working closely with Pakistan government, tourism authorities, and private sector to see how we can collaborate to promote tourism industry there.
"We will invest in Pakistan in terms of services as Etihad airlines offers a range of innovative holidays to 69 destinations across 30 countries".
He said that the UAE government has already invested 8 billion dollars to purchase new aircraft, the first three of them were delivered in January and February and Etihad Airways will have a total of 29 aircraft, five of them Boeing and rest are Airbuses "By the end of 2006, Etihad Airways total fleet will go up to 23 aircraft including five Boeing 777-300ERs and seven Airbuses A330-200's and an A 340-500 aircraft, he added.
A Pakistan embassy attache in the UAE, Dr Shazad Taher Thaheem told this scribe that Etihad Airways, new operations to Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar will make a big difference to more than 700,000 Pakistani nationals living and working in UAE and give an impetus to the existing economic trade ties.
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