Etihad Airways customers around the world will soon be able to fly to two of Greece’s leading holiday destinations as well as Romania and Bulgaria for the first time, following the signing of a new codeshare agreement with Olympic Air.

The new deal, which comes into effect on Tuesday May 18, will also give air travellers in Greece greater and easier access to the Abu Dhabi-based airline’s network of 61 destinations.

Under the deal, Etihad will place its two-letter ‘EY’ code on services operated by Olympic Air between Athens and Rhodes and Thessaloniki in Greece, the Romanian capital Bucharest, and capital of Bulgaria, Sofia.

In turn, Olympic Air will place its ‘OA’ code on Etihad’s flights between Athens and Abu Dhabi and in due time on flights to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Sydney and Melbourne (pending government approval).

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “Etihad continues to expand its codeshare strategy across the world. These codeshare agreements are a key element of our goal to expand into new markets, in a measured way.

“We look forward to strengthening the Etihad customer base in Greece by including the Olympic Air code on our flights from Athens to Abu Dhabi, which have been performing strongly.”

Etihad commenced services between Abu Dhabi and Athens in June 2009 operating three flights per week, which was increased to daily from January 2010. The flights were launched at the same time as Etihad began flights to Larnaca in Cyprus.