Etihad Airways takes off for Chennai

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s national airline Etihad Airways has launched its inaugural flights to Chennai and Kozhikode in India. "India is an enormously important market for Etihad and one we are very keen to expand further," a news agency quoted James Hogan, Etihad Airways' chief executive, as saying. "The appetite for air travel between Abu Dhabi and India shows no sign of relenting and we hope to grow our Indian flying programme even further in the future." There are around 1.5 million expatriate Indians in the UAE and a large number of them hail from south India, especially Kerala. The two separate launches Friday of Etihad's new services increase the number of Indian destinations served by Etihad to six.