WAM Abu Dhabi, 2nd July 2012 (WAM) - Etihad Airways has set new passenger records, with more than 158,500 air travellers flying with the Abu Dhabi-based airline between Tuesday 26 and Saturday 30 June, averaging 31,700 passengers each day.

Individually, each of the five days within that period rank in the airline's top five days for passenger numbers. Saturday 30 June claimed top spot, with 33,248 passengers choosing to fly on Etihad Airways aircraft on that single day, with a seat factor of 85 per cent.

The top five record days for passengers carried on Etihad Airways flights are: 1. Saturday 30 June: 33,248 (passengers carried) 2. Friday 29 June: 32,162 3. Thursday 28 June: 32,057 4. Tuesday 26 June: 30,535 5. Wednesday 27 June 30,525 James Hogan, Etihad Airways' President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "Etihad Airways continues to set records for passenger bookings and passenger numbers, and we expect this to continue throughout the northern hemisphere peak summer season in 2012.

"These record figures demonstrate that air travellers across global markets are consistently choosing to fly with Etihad Airways, whether for business or leisure trips, and to reach those numbers, for an airline that is still less than ten years old, is a remarkable achievement." In preparation for the northern hemisphere summer and peak travel period, Etihad Airways has hired 60 additional airport staff to work in customer services roles.

Mr Hogan added: "The success of these record five passenger days, as well as management of on-going high volumes of traffic to and through our Abu Dhabi hub, has been due to excellent planning and coordination by the Etihad Airways operations team and colleagues from Abu Dhabi Airport Company, Abu Dhabi Airport Services, Abu Dhabi Airport Police, and Immigration." Etihad Airways will operate 1,262 flights each week in the summer of 2012, compared to 1,106 flights in the summer of 2011, an increase of 14 Per cent. The airline has 280,498 seats on its flights available each week compared to 235,818 seats per week last summer, an increase of 19 per cent.

There is a 14 per cent increase in the number of global destinations on the Etihad Airways flight network in the summer of 2012, with flights operating to 73 passenger destinations compared to 64 in 2011.

Since summer 2011 Etihad Airways has launched services to Shanghai, Nairobi, Basra, Male, Seychelles, Chengdu, Dusseldorf, and Tripoli. Yesterday, 1 July, the airline began flights to Lagos.

- WAM/TF