Etihad Airways has launched its inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi to the Greek capital, Athens.

A high level delegation attended the launch which included the Greek Ambassador to the UAE, His Excellency Dionyssios Zois as well as representatives from Etihad Airways’ senior management team.
Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ chief commercial officer, said: “Abu Dhabi to Athens is Etihad’s twelfth European destination and links two leading global capitals. It will also provide a welcomed service for Greek communities worldwide, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney.”

The Athens capital is now served, three times a week from Abu Dhabi, with the airline using an Airbus A320 aircraft. The flights will be increased to five services a week from October 2009 and then daily from the start of 2010.

The new service departs Abu Dhabi at 9:15am and arrives in Athens at 1:05pm local time, on the same day. Return flight departs Athens at 2:30pm, arriving in Abu Dhabi at 8:00pm local time on the same day.

Athens is the airline’s 53rd destination across its expanding global flight network. The start of the new service follows the launch by Etihad in March 2009 of flights to Melbourne, Australia. Flights to Istanbul in Turkey started on Monday 1 June.

Etihad Airways was voted “Middle East Leading Airline” at the 2009 World Travel Awards.
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