ABU DHABI’S national carrier Etihad Airways increased passenger traffic on its Dublin route last year by 15 per cent, making it the 10th busiest route in its global network.
Etihad said yesterday that it carried 214,733 passengers between Dublin and Abu Dhabi in 2011. This compared with 187,188 in the previous year.
That gave it an average load factor of about 79 per cent.
Etihad began flying to Dublin in July 2007 and currently operates 10 flights a week between the two cities.
Beatrice Cosgrove, Etihad’s general manager for northern Europe, said it was “happy” with the passenger figures for Dublin, especially given the “challenges” posed by the Arab Spring uprisings and the economic downturn.
“We’re expecting another good year in 2012,” she said.
Dublin was actually the ninth busiest route for Etihad in 2010 but was overtaken in the pecking order last year by Manchester, which recorded a 29 per cent rise in its traffic to 222,465 in 2011.
This might be a spin off from Etihad’s substantial sponsorship of English Premier League title contenders Manchester City. This deal is reputed to be worth £400 million (€485 million) over 10 years.
In total, Etihad carried a record 8.29 million passengers in 2011, an increase of 17 per cent on the previous year.
Its busiest route was once again to Bangkok in Thailand, where it carried just more than 500,000 passengers. Abu Dhabi to London was the second most popular route, up 16 per cent to 478,821.
Etihad Crystal Cargo carried a record 310,000 tonnes, an increase of 18 per cent on 2010.
James Hogan, Etihad’s president and chief executive, said these figures demonstrated the airline’s “emergence as a formidable force in the international aviation arena”.