04 August 2009

Gulf carrier claims record July

Etihad Airways had a record July with passengers carried up nine per cent on the same month last year.

The Abu Dhabi-based airline flew more than 616,000 passengers in the month with a record 21,640 travelling on July 31, giving a load factor of 90.3%. This was the carrier’s busiest day in its five year history.

The last week of July saw an average of more than 20,500 passengers fly each day.

July saw Etihad’s 900 weekly flights - a 20% increase on the number operated in July 2008 - fly at an average of 88% full across first, business and economy cabins.

Etihad’s flights to the Asia-Pacific region and North America turned in strong performances with seat factors averaging more than 86%. Within Europe, loads exceeded 82% and in the Middle East region it was 77%.

The airline also had its best July for on-time performance at Abu Dhabi airport with 90% of flights departing within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.

This represents an improvement of five percentage points on the same period last year, despite a 21% increase in the airline’s flying schedule.

Chief executive James Hogan said: "The record-breaking passenger numbers we have experienced in July demonstrate that, despite the current economic challenges, Etihad continues to attract high volumes of traffic across all three cabins on our global network of more than 50 destinations.

"Whilst we expected July to be busy we are delighted to have beaten our previous records, especially during the final week of the month when we carried more than 20,500 passengers each day.

"We now look forward to building upon this for the remainder of the summer holiday period and into the Holy Month of Ramadan."

by Phil Davies