Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) has announced that, starting from May 31, it plans to move its daily Abu Dhabi-Beijing service from Beijing Capital to Beijing Daxing International. The route, which is currently suspended due to the Covid-19 epidemic, will be operated using Etihad's fleet of B787-10s and will again be extended to Nagoya Chubu starting from July 1 according to the carrier's press release.

Etihad, unlike many other airlines, continues to serve Beijing, currently offering a daily B777-300(ER) to Capital airport. According to ch-aviation schedules, it will switch to a smaller B787-9 starting March 30.

All of its other services to China remain suspended with Shanghai Pudong tentatively scheduled to be resumed with a reduced 4x weekly frequency from March 31 and its Chengdu Shuangliu having been cancelled altogether until further notice. Etihad has also postponed the resumption of its daily service to Hong Kong International now planning to resume daily flights to the city from July 1.

Etihad is the first carrier from the Middle East choosing to switch to Daxing. Other international carriers that have already moved, or announced their intention to, include Aeroflot, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Finnair, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines, S7 Airlines, Swiss, and Ural Airlines.