Alitalia and Etihad Airways plan to increase their services from four flights a week between Roma and Abu Dhabi to five, according to BreakingTravelNews.com.
The increase in flights will go into effect on June 13, 2013, with Alitalia operating the Rome to Abu Dhabi return flights from the increasingly popular tourist destination using a new 230-seat Airbus A330 aircraft.
The airlines plan to operate the flights on an enhanced, split schedule, ensuing maximum connectivity over each airline's hub.
The schedule update is set to coincidence with updated direct connections in both Abu Dhabi and Rome to and from cities in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Indian subcontinent.
Alitalia has already begun preparations for the additional flights. Customers now have greater onboard codeshare connectivity options via Etihad Airways' Abu Dhabi hub, giving airline passengers better Internet service.
The upgrades are on flights to Bahrain, Bangkok, Colombo, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Kuala Lumpur, the Maldives, Melbourne, Muscat, Nairobi, the Seychelles, Singapore and Sydney.
Etihad Airways has also extended its codeshare connections to give passengers the same Internet improvements onboard for its connections over Alitalia's Rome Fiumicino hub to now also comprise flights to Athens, Barcelona, Belgrade, Bucharest, Budapest, Frankfurt, Geneva, Madrid, Malaga, Malta, Milan, Munich, Sofia, Tirana, Venice, Vienna and Zurich.
"We are very pleased with the strengthening of the commercial partnership with Etihad Airways and with the traffic results of Alitalia's flight between Rome and Abu Dhabi," Giancarlo Schisano, the deputy general director of business for Alitalia, said. "In over four months from the beginning of the connection, Alitalia has transported more than 17,000 passengers on the route.
The success of the flight is also due to the possibility afforded to Alitalia passengers to travel beyond Abu Dhabi to many codeshare destinations across Australia, South East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Gulf States and South Africa with Etihad Airways," added Schisano.
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