Etihad Airways achieves 30-30 destination milestone

New Delhi, May 7 (UNI) Etihad Airways, the national airline of United Arab Emirates (UAE), is celebrating the achievement of launching 30 international destinations in 30 months.

The speed of expansion has seen it launch services to many cities including Brussels, Johannesburg, Manchester and Toronto.

''For Etihad Airways to open routes to 30 international destinations in 30 months is an incredible achievement. This growth will continue and Etihad is on-target to achieve its ambitions of flying to 70 worldwide destinations by 2010,'' said airline's chairman Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saif Al Nahyan.

Last week, Etihad started new services to Paris and Dhaka, highlighting the Abu Dhabi-based airline's aims of linking major population centres in the east and the west. In the past six months, it has also opened new routes to Islamabad, Jakarta, Lahore, Manila, Muscat and Peshawar.

By year-end, Etihad's network will also include Casablanca, Doha, Jeddah and Kuwait alongwith New York.

The expansion is taking place at the same time as Etihad's new fleet of 29 Airbus and Boeing aircraft arrive in Abu Dhabi. It recently took delivery of its third Airbus A330-200 and fourth Boeing B777-300ER aircraft.

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