[Kurt A]

Etihad Airways this week opened a new dedicated aircraft line maintenance facility at Sydney airport, the first of its kind outside the airline’s home base of Abu Dhabi.

One of four stations set to open outside Abu Dhabi this year, the new facility is equipped with the latest technology and equipment which will be used for all day-to-day technical line maintenance on Etihad aircraft including hydraulic, structural and instrument checks.

Cramer Ball, Etihad Airways manager for Australasia said: The new maintenance facility will provide vital support to our expansion plans in Australia. Our daily Sydney service will increase to 11 weekly flights from 31 October 2008 and we are finalising plans to start flights to a third destination in Australia in the first quarter of next year.”

Using the most sophisticated software, hardware and equipment in the aviation industry, the new facility will assist Etihad to continue the airline’s rate of expansion and improve punctuality and performance of its aircraft.
The new Etihad technical line maintenance facility will operate seven days a week, with four engineers, and four mechanics available to service the aircraft.

Etihad Airways recently celebrated its first anniversary of services to Australia. During the year the airline recorded very strong growth and saw more than 100,000 passengers fly with the airline and the number of flights to and from Australia more than triple.

-Etihad