Etihad Announces Increased Service To Dallas/Fort Worth

a large airplane at an airport

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In an earlier post I mentioned how I expect premium cabin fares to/from the US to be nice and low next summer thanks to the likes of LOT, SAS and KLM adding new routes and more frequencies to their existing Europe-US routes. Since I drafted that post Emirates has announced a new route between Dubai and Ft Lauderdale and now Etihad has announced that it will increase the number of flights it operates between Abu Dhabi and Dallas/Fort Wort. Capacity to the US is on the up.

Etihad Adds 4 More Weekly Flights To Dallas/Ft Worth

From 2 February 2017 Etihad will increase the number of flights it operates between Abu Dhabi and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) by four and finally giving the airline a daily service between the two cities.

As of 2 February this will be the schedule which will operate daily using Etihad’s 777-200LR aircraft:

EY161 AUH 09:20 – 15:55 DFW
EY160 DFW19:20 – 20:15+1 day AUH

Etihad had originally planned to offer a daily service as far back as April 2015 but scrapped those plans a few months before the new flights were due to start.

Kevin Knight, Etihad Aviation Group Chief Strategy and Planning Officer, said:

Since launching our Dallas/Fort Worth service less than two years ago, the response from our guests travelling between Dallas/Fort Worth and our home Abu Dhabi and beyond, has exceeded expectations. We are therefore delighted to further expand this service into a daily operation to meet strong market demand.

The increased frequency will provide greater convenience and more options to business and leisure travellers throughout the Texas region, and will also cater to the huge travel market from India and the subcontinent to and from our Dallas/Fort Worth gateway and beyond.

With DFW being the home of American Airlines it will be interesting to see if the two airlines make any moves to expand their codeshare agreement which, as far as I can tell, doesn’t cover flights out of DFW.

Etihad’s 777-200LR

Etihad operates its Abu Dhabi – Dallas/Fort Worth route using its 777-200LR aircraft which offer a 3-cain arrangement:

  • 8 First Class seats
  • 40 Business Class seats
  • 191 Economy Class seats

The good news is that, unlike Emirates, Etihad has fitted out its long range Boeing with a modern Business Class cabin that offers all-aisle-access as well as true lie-flat seats.

etihad-777-200lr-business-class-seat-map

There’s no 3-across seating in the middle of the cabin like you get with Emirates.

I haven’t flown in Etihad’s 777-200LR but I have flown in the 777-300ER and, from what I’ve seen, the Business Class seats and cabin are as good as identical (they may even be identical):

Etihad Business Class 777-300Etihad 777-300ER Business Class

Etihad Business Class 777-300Etihad 777-300ER Business Class

While these seats aren’t quite as good as the Business Studio seat that Etihad offers on its A380 aircraft the difference isn’t that great and the comfort levels are still very high.

The best seats:

All seats have direct aisle access but, because of how the cabin is laid out, some seats are definitely better than others.

Solo travelers – the best seats are the window seats in the odd-numbered rows. They’re more private and are protected from the aisles.

For Couples – the best seats are the centre seats in the odd-numbered rows. The seats are closer together than those in the even-numbered rows and they’re more protected from the aisles.

Bottom Line

I’m an unabashed fan of Etihad and the service the airline provides so to have more service to/from DFW (an airport I use a lot as an American Airlines flyer) is good news for me.

American Airlines flyers can earn and burn AAdvantage miles on Etihad (although awards are now a lot more expensive since the AAdvantage devaluations) so, seeing the number of flights on this route go from 3 to 7 per week, should offer more opportunities for excellent quality (if expensive) award redemptions.

1 COMMENT

  1. […] Following last week’s announcement that Etihad will be increasing service to Dallas/Ft Worth the airline has now announced that it will be decreasing service to San Francisco from early next year. Etihad will reduce its daily service between Abu Dhabi and San Francisco to just 3 flights per week and this may go some way to expelling where the airline is getting the aircraft to operate the extra flights to Dallas/Ft Worth. […]

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