Etihad’s Bizarre, Surprise Approach To Launching Charlotte Flights

A few days ago, I wrote about how Etihad Airways announced that it’s launching a new route between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Charlotte (CLT). The flight will commence in May 2026, and will operate 4x weekly, with Boeing 787s. The backstory of how this route came to be is quite something, as flagged by @xJonNYC…

May 20, 2025 - 06:25

Etihad’s Bizarre, Surprise Approach To Launching Charlotte Flights

A few days ago, I wrote about how Etihad Airways announced that it’s launching a new route between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Charlotte (CLT). The flight will commence in May 2026, and will operate 4x weekly, with Boeing 787s. The backstory of how this route came to be is quite something, as flagged by @xJonNYC…

Charlotte Airport caught off guard by Etihad route

Forbes has the backstory of how Etihad went about making the decision to launch flights to Charlotte. As we all know, the route announcement coincided with President Trump’s visit to the UAE, where Etihad also announced a Boeing aircraft order (though with few details, and it’s only described as a “commitment” for now).

Generally speaking, the process of an airline launching a long haul flight to a new airport is a drawn out process. It takes months, and sometimes there are even years of discussions and negotiations between airports and airlines, especially given the incentives that are often provided.

That wasn’t the case here, and Charlotte Airport executives were even caught off guard by the announcement. According to Forbes, the airport only found out about the route one day before it was announced:

President Trump’s visit to Abu Dhabi last week prompted Etihad Airways to reach out to Charlotte Douglas International Airport to say it wanted to served Charlotte.
The call to the airport was made Wednesday. It was the first time the airport heard of the airline’s interest. On Thursday, Trump visited Abu Dhabi. On Friday morning, Etihad announced that it intends to fly the Boeing 787 between its Abu Dhabi hub and Charlotte four times weekly starting May 4, 2026. Tickets went on sale Friday.

In an interview on Friday, Etihad’s Director of Network and Scheduling stated “it’s a good day to make the announcement,” and claimed the airline has “been looking at Charlotte for a few months.”

Etihad contacted Charlotte Airport a day before the announcement

What a strange approach to adding a new route

This new route is a major development for Charlotte — it’s the airport’s first route to Asia and the Middle East, the airport’s longest nonstop flight, and also the airport’s only scheduled Boeing 787 flight. I’m not sure what’s stranger:

That Etihad executives only started discussions with the airport a day before making the announcement
That Charlotte Airport executives weren’t doing more to engage in conversations with Gulf carriers about launching flights to the airport

As you’d expect, “matchmaking” between airports and airlines is big business, and there are even conferences for these kinds of things (as Denver Airport executives can attest to).