Etihad Airways to launch non-stop daily flights to Perth, Western Australia starting July 15, 2014. This will make it the fourth destination from Abu Dhabi airline’s home base to Australia and shall total 351 weekly flights when launched. 

An Airbus A330-200 aircraft with 262 seats, 22 seats in business and 240 in economy class will operate on this route.

James Hogan Etihad Airways’ president and chief executive said: “The new services will build the first ever commercial air bridge between Perth and Abu Dhabi and will cater to the growing demand for travel between these two points and beyond to Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

“Our analysis shows there is a significant business opportunity on the Perth route. Overseas visitor numbers are growing at a steady rate of around seven per cent overall – with several markets to which we fly – such as Germany, France, Italy and Ireland – recording an increase in visitor numbers of between 8.5 per cent and approximately 30 per cent in the 2012/13 financial year. Significantly, arrivals from the Middle East grew at more than 104 per cent over the same period. 

“Western Australians, too, are travelling overseas in increasingly large numbers with an average annual growth rate of 8.5 per ent over the past three years.

“Our partnership with Virgin Australia and codeshare flights to 14 towns and cities in its Western Australia regional network adds immensely to the strength of the business case for the route and the appeal of our consumer offering.

“We will also be well positioned to contribute to the economic development of regional centres through increased state-wide tourism flows and look forward to working with tourism authorities to achieve this outcome.”

“Eighty of the top 300 Australian companies have their headquarters in Perth and many of these have commercial interests in Africa and the Middle East. Equally, many UAE businesses have a strong presence in Australia, particularly in the agribusiness, resources and tourism sectors. We anticipate that this will translate to strong demand for our new services.

“On the cargo front, we will aggressively pursue a stake of the current volume of outbound freight and will look to develop additional revenue streams from areas that have not yet been fully developed.”