It's certainly not easy to get a foothold in Algeria, whatever your business or nationality. That's what the directors of the national airline of the United Arab Emirates must think, Etihad.
As early as November 2024, the Abu Dhabi carrier had announced the launch of four weekly flights to the Algerian capital. The carrier had planned to start its flights on 7 November. Less than a week after the launch of its flights to Tunis. Tunis is now operational, Algiers has been put on hold.
In mid-November, the company confirmed that it was delaying the launch of its flight until early February. Management spoke modestly of " reasons over which it had no control" . In fact, there was talk behind the scenes of the Algerian authorities' difficulties in obtaining traffic rights. In fact, Algeria continues to allocate traffic rights on a strict 50/50 basis between Algerian and foreign airlines. On the Algeria-UAE route, Emirates and Air Algérie each operate 7 flights a week. A priori, therefore, there is no room for Etihad.
The decision has finally been made. Etihad will not be flying to Algeria. The airline has discreetly withdrawn its Airbus A321LR flight from its booking site. This deprives Algeria of 640 seats in each direction. And more global air access.
