Between November 1 and 7, five long-haul routes joined 
Etihad Airways’ network from its Abu Dhabi hub. Three are in Asia: Changi Mai, Hanoi, and Hong Kong. Two are in Africa: Algiers and Tunis. OAG data shows they have brought the carrier’s passenger network to 87 destinations in November.
There is no denying that Etihad is extremely ambitious again. It has already announced 31 new and returning cities this year, with more coming. Its new longest service started earlier this year. But has it truly learned the lessons from its past, when it lost billions amid its period of excessiveness, overambition, and misdirection? Will its new routes perform decently enough to remain? Time will tell.
Etihad’s 3 Additional Routes To Asia
Only 
Hong Kong, which was the location for this year’s Routes World event, has seen Etihad’s passenger aircraft before. The carrier previously served this route between 2015 and 2020. The Airbus A330-200 was initially deployed before it switched to the Boeing 787-9 in 2018.
Unlike before the pandemic, when the carrier flew to Hong Kong daily, it now serves the Pearl of the Orient four times a week. It uses its non-first-class, 290-seat 787-9s. In contrast, fellow Gulf carrier 
Qatar Airways serves Hong Kong twice daily on the 777-300ER from Doha, while Emirates has three daily flights on the A380/777-300ER from Dubai.
Chiang Mai could not be more different. While the city in Northern Thailand was served by Qatar Airways between 2017 and 2020, Etihad has become the sole operator from the Middle East. It is well-suited to its new A321LRs. These have just 160 seats: two first-class suites with a fully flat bed, a first for Etihad’s narrowbodies; 14 seats in business seats with a fully flat bed, a notable improvement over that cabin on its other single-aisle equipment (1-1); and 144 seats in economy (3-3; 30″ to 34″ pitch). It is quite a risky route, especially with first-class suites.
|
Start Date |
Abu Dhabi To… |
Etihad’s Operations In November* |
|---|---|---|
|
November 2 |
Hanoi |
Five weekly 787-9 |
|
November 3 |
Chiang Mai |
Four weekly A321LR |
|
November 3 |
Hong Kong |
Four weekly 787-9 |
|
* They may vary at other times |
Two New Routes To Africa
On November 1, Etihad took off to Tunis. It marked its first time in Tunisia. As you’d expect, the local Abu Dhabi-Tunis market is not large. According to booking data, only 9,000 round-trip passengers traveled in the 12 months to August 2025. Others might have flown nonstop to Dubai and transferred overland. Indeed, Dubai-Tunis had 104,000 passengers and an average fare two-thirds higher than from Abu Dhabi.
Despite the lack of traffic, the Tunisian capital was Abu Dhabi’s second-largest unserved African market. Etihad serves it three times weekly on the A321LR; at least it won’t have many seats to fill. EY739 leaves Abu Dhabi at 02:20 and arrives in North Africa at 06:20 local time (7h block time). Returning, EY740 departs at 10:40 and gets back at 19:25 (5h 40m). As always, this is about two-way connectivity, with Kuala Lumpur being Etihad’s top target.
Algiers was the UAE capital’s largest unserved city in Africa. Still, it only had 11,000 local passengers. In contrast, Dubai had 346,000, with a fare that was 37% higher. Etihad will begin Abu Dhabi-Algiers service on November 7, with a four-weekly A321LR operation. For obvious reasons, the schedule is more or less the same as for Tunis. Only one frame is needed to serve both African cities.
15 More Routes Start Soon
Etihad will take off to Medinah next, with flights restarting on November 11. Kazan follows on December 4. It will fly to the Russian city three times weekly on the 158-seat A320ceo. It will become its fourth route to the country, joining Moscow Sheremetyevo, St. Petersburg, and Sochi. Flights to Sochi started in May 2025.
It will begin or recommence service to Almaty on June 15, Baku on June 16, Bucharest on August 17, Charlotte on March 23, Damascus on March 23, Kabul on March 19, Kraków on June 16, Palma de Mallorca on June 12, Salalah on May 21, Tashkent on August 17, Tbilisi on August 17, Yerevan on June 15, and Zanzibar on June 14. Several of these markets were inherited from the end of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. Ready-made routes are commonplace for airlines globally.
