Etihad will fly to Nepal from October

Dubai: Etihad Airways will start a four-flights-a-week service from Abu Dhabi to Nepal's capital Kathmandu in October.

The flights will provide a link for the 90,000 Nepalese living in the UAE as well as the growing demand from leisure travellers looking to sample Nepal's ancient culture and the Himalayas.

Kathmandu will join Etihad's expanding network across the Indian subcontinent which includes Dhaka, Delhi, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Karachi, Islamabad, Pesh-awar and Lahore.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways chief executive, said, "The Kathmandu service will be enormously popular with the UAE's Nep-alese community as well as leisure travellers flying with Etihad from Europe and North America."

Etihad will operate a two cabin Airbus A330-200 between Abu Dhabi and Kathmandu configured to carry 262 passengers, with 22 in business class and 240 in economy.