Etihad cuts Dublin-Abu Dhabi flights to one a day

GULF airline Etihad is cutting its Dublin to Abu Dhabi service from twice-a-day to just one daily flight from January – and a shortage of aircraft is to blame.

The move by the airline is said to be partly driven by the fact that leases are up on some of Etihad’s jets, and the airline is opting to replace them. While that process gets under way the airline has fewer planes to go around.

The twice daily service is expected to return next summer.

Travel industry expert Eoghan Corry, of travelexta.ie, said: ‘They are improving their fleets.

‘That means it will include [the] Edinburgh [route which is] also going to one flight. It will possibly be back up to two in summer.

‘Etihad will go back to two when it has new aircraft. At the moment it will mean they’re only losing about 100 seats on the route as the Boeing 777 replacing the Airbus A330 has more seats. It’s a temporary thing.’

Etihad flew more than 240,000 passengers between Dublin and Abu Dhabi in 2013.