Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based national airline of the United Arab Emirates, is to increase its Australian flying programme following the success of the Sydney service.
From March, the airline will add a further four flights a week from the present seven. This news comes just prior to the launch of Etihad's second Australian destination, Brisbane, at the end of the month.
Unlike the 14-hour plus non-stop flights to Sydney, the new thrice-weekly service operates via Singapore. The flights connect up with the UK services, twice daily out of Heathrow and a single operation from Manchester.
However, from Manchester, flights are two-class Airbus A330 operations rather than the three-cabin Airbus A340 out of Heathrow. The airline code-shares with bmi.
Etihad says that the Sydney service is performing exceptionally well since its launch in March. More than 40,000 passengers have flown on the route with a 68% seat factor in economy, 85% in business and 78% in first class.
Etihad CEO, Australian James Hogan, is proud of the routes” achievement: ”Sydney has been Etihad's most successful launch since the airline began in 2003, which has resulted in us expanding our Australian operation with the launch of Brisbane at the end of September and the increase of our Sydney services next year.”
The airline carried more than 1.9m passengers in the first six months of 2007, compared to 900,000 for the same period in 2006, an increase of 111%. Average seat factors of 65% were experienced for the January to June period throughout the airline”s global network.