A company from the United Arab Emirates will fly to Brazil in 2013.
Etihad will operate daily flights between Abu Dhabi and São Paulo starting in June of next year.
- The United Arab Emirates airline, Etihad Airways, will fly to Brazil starting in 2013. According to information released on the company's website, the direct flight between Abu Dhabi and São Paulo will operate from June 1st of next year. It will be Etihad's first destination in South America.
According to the company's president and CEO, James Hogan, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the population of nearly 200 million people, and the consistent growth of the economy made the country an "obvious" destination for Etihad flights. "The flow of business and tourism between the United Arab Emirates and Brazil has grown and will be strengthened by our direct flights," he said.
The flight will be operated by an Airbus A340-600 aircraft, divided into three classes. There will be 12 seats in first class, 32 in business class, and 248 in economy class. Brazil is the only developing country in the BRIC group, which also includes Russia, India, and China, to which Etihad does not yet fly. However, the company has more than 50 Brazilians on its staff. Of this total, 18 are pilots and 27 are flight attendants. All are based in the United Arab Emirates.
The inauguration of this flight is part of a project to expand the company's air network and destinations. Etihad's goal is to fly to more than 100 destinations with more than 150 aircraft by 2020. In 2012, new flights were announced to Washington (United States), Basra (Iraq), Lagos (Nigeria), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Ahmedabad (India), and Vietnam.
Etihad was founded in 2003 in Abu Dhabi. Another airline from the United Arab Emirates, Emirates Airline, headquartered in Dubai, already flies to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro daily. Qatar Airways, also from Qatar, has a direct flight between Doha and the São Paulo capital every day.
Etihad owns 30% of the German low-cost airline airberlin and 40% of Air Seychelles, based in Seychelles. In December 2011, Etihad announced the purchase of 10 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft and two 777 freighters, for a total of US$2,8 billion.