Etihad Airways has added 13 per cent of seat capacity to its ‘blue-ribbon’ London Heathrow-Abu Dhabi route with the delivery of its first three class Boeing 777-300ER. The aircraft will predominantly operate the airline’s 9:15 flight from Heathrow, one of three daily flights operated by Etihad Airways, to its home base in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates.

Etihad Airways has announced a 31 per cent increase in its quarter two 2012 revenues to US$1.25 billion, contributing to first half 2012 revenues up 30 per cent to US$2.24 billion. Passenger numbers leapt to 2.55 million in quarter two, up 34 per cent, and to 4.89 million in the half year, thanks to increased overall capacity and improved seat factors.

Etihad Airways has restructured its global sales division and made several new key appointments across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Jean-Marc Crescent has been appointed as vice president, global account sales, while Joost den Hartog will take up the post of vice president of Europe based in Berlin, where Etihad Airways will locate its new regional and German offices.

Etihad Airways achieved a new milestone on Monday 11th June when more than 65,500 flight bookings were made with the Abu Dhabi-based airline. The figure was the highest number of bookings ever made in a single day with Etihad Airways and exceeded the previous record, on Monday January 9th, by 13 per cent.

Etihad Airways has appointed Norio Inaba as its new general manager for Japan. Etihad is considered the World’s Leading Airline by the World Travel Awards.

Etihad Airways and airberlin have integrated their small and medium-sized enterprise loyalty programmes – Business Connect and business points. From today, companies which participate in either airline’s business travel loyalty programme will be rewarded for flying on codeshare flights operated by Etihad Airways, airberlin and NIKI.