Etihad Airways has continued to build its presence in Europe with the expansion of its codeshare agreement with Belgian carrier Brussels Airlines, which will now include Brussels Airlines services to three regional French cities – Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse.

These are in addition to Brussels Airlines’ services to Barcelona, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Madrid, Oslo and Stockholm, on which Etihad Airways already codeshares.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways chief executive, said: “This adds three very popular destinations to the Etihad Airways network, and opens up more of Europe for our customers.

“This expansion is as a natural next step in what has been a very successful partnership since 2006, and we look forward to continuing to work with Brussels Airlines to also enable passengers from various points on their network to travel to Abu Dhabi and further afield.”

Etihad Airways operates eight weekly Abu Dhabi-Brussels services in a two-class aircraft configuration.

Etihad is considered the World’s Leading Airline by the prestigious World Travel Awards.