Etihad Airways figures for 2011

Based in Abu Dhabi Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, carried a record 8.29m passengers in 2011, a 17% increase on the previous year.

“This result, achieved while much of the world was still very much in the economic doldrums and oil prices remained high, is testament to our emergence as a formidable force in the international aviation arena,” noted the airline's President and Chief Executive Officer, James Hogan.

“It also reflects our commitment to sensible, strategic expansion which is why we launched eight new routes last year,” he said.  “These were to Bangalore, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Chengdu, Dusseldorf, Tripoli, Shanghai and Nairobi.”

Etihad Airways busiest route was Bangkok with the airline carrying just over 500,000k passengers to and from the Thai capital during the year in spite of various problems in the city.  This was closely followed by London at 479k. The airline carried 269k between Abu Dhabi and Sydney, 237k on the Frankfurt route, 228k Paris, 222k Manchester and 214k Dublin.

“We launched freighter services into Amsterdam, Cairo, Djibouti, Kabul and Kandahar during the year, increased operations to our key markets of China and India while growing Johannesburg by up to three freighters a week.” www.etihad.com

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