Etihad Airways to treble capacity to Delhi and Mumbai; other airline activity is likely to follow

India will shortly become Etihad Airways' largest single country market, as it announced plans to treble the amount of seat capacity between Abu Dhabi and Delhi and Mumbai by the end of 2013.

Further increases in the number of seats and routes will follow in 2014, although these are subject to regulatory approval.

In addition to this, Etihad also intends to codeshare on a wide range of domestic and international flights operated by its future equity alliance partner Jet Airways, for which regulatory approvals are expected "imminently".

Meanwhile, this massive shift in the balance of power in India is likely to be followed by announcements by other airline, foreign and Indian, as well as Tata, founders of the original Air India and now partnering with Singapore Airlines and with AirAsia.