Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has announced it will launch direct flights to Sana’a, Yemen’s political and commercial capital, starting September 1.

Sana’a will be the airline’s eighth destination on the Arabian Peninsula beyond Abu Dhabi, joining Bahrain, Dammam, Doha, Jeddah, Kuwait, Muscat and Riyadh.  Flights to Sana’a will operate four times a week, a statement from the airline company said.

James Hogan, president and chief executive, Etihad Airways, said: “The launch of direct services to Sana’a is consistent with our strategy of adding depth and scale to our network and targeting areas of growth in emerging markets.”

“The ancestral, cultural and business ties between the two countries are significant, and we believe the new service will further facilitate Yemen’s economic development in the months and years ahead.”

More than 90,000 Yemini nationals live in the UAE, and the country is Yemen’s largest regional trading partner with annual trade valued at over $2 billion, of which $1.6 billion is made up of UAE exports. Overall, UAE accounts for almost 20 per cent of Yemen’s total imports.

The new Sana’a route announcement follows the launch of a number of new services in 2013 from Etihad Airways’ Abu Dhabi hub to cities such as Washington DC (April 1), Amsterdam (May 15), São Paulo (June 1) and Ho Chi Minh City (October 1).

The route will be operated by a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft with 16 seats in pearl business class and 120 seats in coral economy class.

Flights can be booked from today and the new Sana’a schedule is designed to provide seamless connections over Etihad Airways’ Abu Dhabi hub to key European, North American, GCC, and Middle East destinations. – TradeArabia News Service