Etihad Airways launches Flights between Abu Dhabi and Chicago

Etihad Airways has launched flights from its Abu Dhabi home-base to the American city of Chicago. Flight EY151 took-off on Wednesday 2 September, landing 14 hours later at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

For the inaugural flight, Etihad operated its Airbus A340-600 aircraft in the iconic Formula 1 livery, with O’Hare airport fire trucks providing the traditional ‘water arch’ for the plane on the runway before it docked at terminal five.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said, “We are delighted to start services to Chicago which is our third major destination in North America. Chicago is set to become a key part of our global flight programme with strong traffic expected from cities across our Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent network.”

With the launch of the three weekly flights to Chicago, Etihad Airways now flies to North America 13 times a week: daily to New York (JFK) and three times weekly to Toronto in Canada. This will increase to 16 flights a week when the Chicago service goes to six per week at the end of October.

In July, Etihad and American Airlines announced a wide ranging codeshare agreement. The ‘EY’ code can now be seen on selected domestic and international services operated by American, and the ‘AA’ code has been placed on Etihad services to North America and Europe.

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