Etihad to open fourth U.S. gateway
Etihad Airways has unveiled plans to add Boston to its list of destinations in the U.S., with flights set to begin at the start of the northern summer 2024 season.
The move increases the carrier’s U.S. network to four destinations, complementing flights to Chicago O’Hare (ORD), New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Washington Dulles (IAD). The airline also flies to the Canadian city of Toronto.
Flights from Etihad’s Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) hub to Boston Logan (BOS) will operate four times per week, commencing on March 31, 2024. Service will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays using Boeing 787-9 aircraft. Onward connection from BOS will also be available through codeshare partner JetBlue Airways.
Abu Dhabi will become Boston’s second destination in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be served nonstop alongside Dubai International (DXB). OAG Schedules Analyser data shows Emirates Airlines operates a daily DXB-BOS flight using 777-300ERs.
Boston also has three other Middle East connections, with Delta Air Lines and El Al Israel Airlines each serving Tel Aviv three times per week, and Qatar Airways flying daily from Doha.
The addition of Boston to Etihad’s network restores its U.S. route map to four gateways. Prior to the pandemic, the airline offered a 3X-weekly service to Los Angeles, as well as flying daily to ORD, JFK and IAD. However, operations to the Californian city are yet to return.
Looking at the flow of passengers on Emirates’ Boston service during 2022, point-to-point traffic from Dubai amounted to about 15,800 one-way passengers. The majority of travelers—about 53,700 of them—started their journey to Boston from destinations behind Dubai. Bridge traffic was 12,200, while the number of passengers who originated in Dubai and flew to onward points via Boston was about 3,100.
The top three destinations for behind traffic were Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, suggesting Etihad may also be looking to tap into U.S. demand from India. Boston has no nonstops to India at present, while Etihad has eight Indian routes from AUH, offering some 59,400 two-way weekly seats.
