Etihad Airways, the second largest airline of the United Arab Emirates, is planning to add more flights between Abu Dhabi and Australia. The news comes after Etihad and Emirates airlines were allowed to fly to major Australian airports from October 2016, which would increase tourism and possibly reduce ticket prices .

On Friday, a bilateral air services agreement was signed, giving both airliners permission to add more flights to its service. Meanwhile, their arch rival Qatar has also announced to deploy more number of flights to and from Australia from its hub in Doha to Sydney and Adelaide within May.

The agreement allows Etihad to schedule more flights to Australia's four largest airports -- Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. However, smaller airports like Adelaide, Gold Coast and Cairns were excluded from the deal due to inadequate capacity caps under the bilateral agreement.

On a regular account, Etihad offers 42 return flights between the UAE and Australia per week. But the new bilateral services agreement will allow Etihad to increase the number of its scheduled return flights to 56 a week from October.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, a spokesman for Etihad said that his company was "considering its options for using the extra capacity" available to the carrier since Friday. However, an Emirates spokeswoman confirmed that currently the company doesn’t have any plan to increase flights between Dubai and Australia.

Back in October, Etihad Airways announced its plan to launch flagship A380 in Melbourne from June 2016. The national airline of the United Arab Emirates would be scheduled daily between Abu Dhabi and Melbourne.

Infrastructure and Regional Development Minister Warren Truss said the new agreements between different airliners have made access easier for Australian travellers to the global hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Similarly, Tourism and International Education Minister Richard Colbeck said air services were vital for increasing Australia's tourism, education, trade and investment connectivity.

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