Etihad Airways has announced it will add an extra four flights a week from Abu Dhabi, a move the NSW Government said will bring an extra 50,000 travellers to the state and inject $20m into the economy each year.
Minister for Tourism Matt Brown joined Etihad Airways chief executive officer, James Hogan, to jointly announce the national airline of the United Arab Emirates was boosting its weekly flight total to eleven.
“Etihad’s choice of Sydney for additional flights confirms the city’s status as both a great tourist destination and Australia’s global city,” Brown said.
The announcement comes just after the first anniversary of the commencement of Etihad’s services to Australia.
“Etihad began flying to Sydney in March last year with three weekly services and as of June the services increased to daily,” Brown said. “In the first year of its Sydney-Abu Dhabi service a total of more than 100,000 passengers have flown between the two cities and once the new flights commence this will increase our capacity to more than a quarter of a million passengers a year.”
Etihad Airways’s Hogan said Sydney had been Etihad’s most successful launch since the airline began in 2003.
“Etihad Airways’ flights to Sydney have made a positive contribution to trade and tourism between the UAE, other points in our global network and NSW,” Hogan said. “Since we started flights to Sydney early last year demand has been very strong and the growth of our Australian operation, including the launch of Brisbane, has created more jobs and business opportunities both here and abroad.
“Australia and Australians have played a significant role in our ascent and I am confident that this upward trend will continue.”
Mr Brown said the new Etihad flights add to what will be an exciting time for Sydney in the last quarter of this year with V Australia commencing daily Los Angeles flights and Qantas also flying three times each week from Buenos Aires, Argentina into Sydney. “These additional flights could mean an extra 4400 visitors into Sydney each week spending an average of $8 million in the lead up to Christmas.”
Brown said Tourism NSW would undertake a cooperative marketing campaign with Etihad targeting key markets in the UK and Europe to attract the high yield traveller.
“A major opportunity arising from our partnership with Etihad is to leverage its extensive European network to market to the high yield traveller from the UK and Europe.
“The Middle East hub in Abu Dhabi also provides opportunities for growth in this developing high yield long stay market.”
Research shows more than 24,000 people from the Middle East visited NSW in 2007, an increase of 50 per cent over the number of visitors for 2003.
