Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has opened its new European headquarters in Berlin, following its strategic partnership with airberlin.

The new office, located in the heart of Berlin’s historic Potsdamer Platz, houses both Etihad’s European and German sales and marketing teams, and includes joint Etihad Airways-airberlin reservation and ticketing counters.

President and CEO James Hogan, said:  “Germany remains a critically important part of Etihad Airways’ growing passenger and cargo network, and while much of Europe continues to face challenges linked to the prevailing euro crisis, the German inbound and outbound travel is performing well for us.”

“Last year, we carried 47 per cent more guests (530,351) to and from Germany compared to 2011, and that was due to better load factors to and from Frankfurt and Munich, the launch of our daily Dusseldorf service, and strong feeder traffic coming from airberlin.  Cargo also proved resilient as tonnage carried to and from Germany was up 18 per cent to 52,000 tons,” said Hogan.

“Looking ahead we are on target to hit our numbers for 2013, and with the opening of this new office, there is no doubt that we’re in Europe and Berlin for the long haul,” he added. - TradeArabia News Service