Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
will launch a commercial service to China in the first quarter of 2008, local
newspaper Gulf News reported yesterday.
Etihad is the process of selecting a destination between Beijing, capital of
China, and Shanghai, the business and financial hub in eastern China, and a
formal announcement will be made soon, the airline's CEO James Hogan was quoted
as saying.
"It's no secret we're looking at China. Our goal is by the end of the first
quarter, and hopefully we will achieve what we working for," he said.
When hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to China for the2008 Olympics,
some of them will fly Etihad, he said. China is "such a huge market, we want to
start off right way," he added.
Established in July 2003, Etihad launched its first flight on Nov. 6 the same
year. It currently has 37 aircraft on fleet covering 46 destinations.
