Etihad passenger load increases 70%

Dubai: Etihad Airways carried more than 3.3 million passengers during the first nine months of 2007, compared to 1.95 million for the same period in 2006, an increase of 70 per cent.

The airline had average seat factors of 75 per cent across its network of 45 destinations during the third quarter of 2007, which covers July, August and September.

Year-on-year, seat factor has increased by nine per cent as Etihad continues to expand its global network and add new aircraft to its fleet.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways' chief executive officer, said: "The last quarter has been another strong one for Etihad with impressive growth in all passenger cabins. It's particularly pleasing to see that growth is spread well across the network, with both new and established routes performing extremely well.

"The airline's new winter schedule, which starts on October 28, will see us boost our weekly flight schedule by a further 29 per cent, which should see us exceed our 4.5 million passenger target by the end of this year.

During the third quarter of 2007, all Etihad's cabins experienced increased seat factors with a number of key routes achieving record passenger numbers. This includes aircraft which were more than 85 per cent full in economy class on the airline's London Heathrow, Manila and Toronto services.

The new Dublin service has quickly established itself as one of the airline's most popular, achieving an overall seat factor of 81 per cent. Sydney, launched in March, also continues to perform exceptionally well, achieving an average economy seat factor of 80 per cent this quarter.

Etihad's business class cabin also experienced impressive growth during the third quarter of 2007 with seat factors on London Heathrow flights achieving an average of 82 per cent, Toronto gaining an average of 86 per cent, New York rising to 77 per cent and reaching Sydney 74 per cent.

Routes in the Middle East which have performed well during the quarter include Damascus and Amman, achieving average seat factors of 72 and 75 per cent, respectively.

New routes

Etihad launched eight new routes in 2007 - to Sydney, Brisbane, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Milan and Dublin.

The airline will add its 45th destination - and ninth of 2007 - to its global network on October 28 with the launch of flights to Kathmandu in Nepal.