Etihad Airways announced it has achieved the highest passenger and cargo volumes in 2013, nearly 12 million people flew with Etihad Airways last year, marking an increase of nearly 16 percent in comparison to 2012’s figure of 10.3 million.

BKK was once again the airline’s busiest route, with a total of 742,759 passengers flying to Thailand’s capital city in 2013, a year-on-year increase of seven per cent.

MNL was the second busiest route (547,068 passengers), followed by London (544,564 passengers), Jeddah (373,651 passengers) and Paris (338,969 passengers).

Etihad Airways carried 73 percent of the more than 16.4 million passengers who traveled through AUH airport in 2013. With the addition of the airline’s equity alliance partners that operate flights into Abu Dhabi, the combined total rises to 79 percent of passenger traffic at AUH

James Hogan, president and chief executive officer of Etihad Airways, said: “Our record-breaking numbers in 2013 reflect the continued success of our strategic master plan, which focuses on three fundamental pillars; organic network growth, the forging of codeshare partnerships, and minority equity investments in other airlines.

“As the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, we also continued to support Abu Dhabi’s growth as a leading international travel hub, while facilitating trade to and from the country.”

Six destinations were introduced to Etihad Airways’ network in 2013, with new services launched to DCA in March, AMS in May,GRU and BEG in June, SAH in September, and SGN in October.