Etihad Airways has launched new flights

Etihad Airways has launched flights from Abu Dhabi to the American city of Chicago. Flight EY151 took off on September 2, landing 14 hours later at the city's O’Hare International Airport.
For the inaugural flight, Etihad operated its Airbus A340-600 aircraft in the iconic Formula 1 livery, with O’Hare airport fire trucks providing the traditional ‘water arch’ for the plane on the runway before it docked at terminal five.

The launch of the new service Etihad’s third destination in North America after New York and Toronto brings to 55 the total number of international destinations served by the airline.Chicago is set to become a key part of our global flight programme with strong traffic expected from cities across our Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent network,' stated James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive.

Etihad’s fleet of brand new, fuel efficient aircraft allows us to launch flights to ultra long haul destinations, such as Chicago, at the same time providing customers in all three cabins with the most luxurious in flight experience on offer in the industry.With the launch of the three weekly flights to Chicago, Etihad now flies to North America 13 times a week daily to New York JFK and three times weekly to Toronto in Canada. This will increase to 16 flights a week when the Chicago service goes to six per week at the end of October.

In July, Etihad and American Airlines announced a wide ranging code-share agreement. The ‘EY’ code can now be seen on selected domestic and international services operated by American, and the AA code has been placed on Etihad services to North America and Europe.
Chicago is the third largest US market for air travel to the Middle East and GCC, after New York and Washington, and the state of Illinois is home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the US with an estimated Arab American population of more than 230,000.

The famed 'windy city' is home to 2.5 million residents and the Chicago metropolitan area has a population of more than 9.5 million people.Chicago attracts more than 44 million visitors each year and the city’s main airport, O’Hare, witnessed nearly 70 million passengers in 2008 making it the second busiest airport in the world.-TradeArabia News Service