Etihad Airways has marked a major milestone in their history with the celebration of their 5^th year running yesterday (November 5th).

Etihad Airways was created with a Royal Decree, issued by Sheikh Khalifa bin zayed Al Nahyan. In 2003, the carrier began its operations with their first flight to Al Ain from Abu Dhabi. One week later, they began their commercial services with a Beirut flight. Following their first commercial flight, Etihad Airways added nearly one more route each month. Their passenger figures in 2007 were 4.6 million, which showed an increase in popularity of the carrier in comparison to their 2006 figures of 2.8 million.

Over these past 5 years, Etihad Airways has flown almost 14 million passengers on over 87,000 flights destined for 48 places throughout Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, Australia, and the Middle East. The fleet of the carrier has grown to 39 planes and is expected to be 42 by the end of this year.

Etihad has a schedule of new launches in their pipeline, some of which include a new Melbourne route for March of next year. In celebration of this new launch, the airline is enlisting Dannii Minogue, an X Factor judge, to join their team at the World Travel Market. They are also going to launch non-stop flights to Almaty in Kazakhstan from their base in Abu Dhabi on December 2^nd, as well as to Moscow on December 1 and Lagos next March.

James Hogan, the Chief Executive of Etihad Airways, said that they have achieved a major amount of growth over the past 5 years, and they continue to keep their position as the fastest growing carrier in the world.

See www.etihadairways.com for more about Etihad Airways.