Etihad wins ‘Fastest Growing Airline in Middle East’ honours

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has won the award for ‘Fastest Growing Airline in the Middle East’ at the 2012 Athens International Airport (AIA) Airline Marketing Workshop.

In its 12th year, the annual AIA workshop presents awards to airlines that have demonstrated rapid and successful development over the past 12 months.

More than 150 travel managers, human resource directors, facility managers, and travel buyers of medium and large companies involved in the Greek travel management field voted for the award, which was presented at a gala event held in the Athens Music Hall.

The workshop has become an important point of reference for all the sectors of the Greek transport and travel industry, including airlines, hotel chains, car rental companies and global distribution systems.

The main topics of this year’s workshop were the challenging 2011 market conditions and the positioning of Athens and Greece given the country’s recent economic difficulties.

Accepting the award on behalf of the airline, Etihad Airways Country Manager for Greece, Dimitrios Karagkioules, said: “Etihad Airways is just eight years old and in that short timeframe, our airline has established itself as one of the world’s leading airlines.

“The airline is growing rapidly, and we are delighted to see our major investment in Greece paying off, as we link this historic and ancient city with the rest of our global network. In the months and years ahead we will continue to set new benchmarks as we inaugurate routes and roll out more and more innovative ways to further improve our offering in Greece and elsewhere on our network.”

The award comes on top of other accolades recently bestowed on the airline, including: World’s Best First Class, as judged by over 18 million air travellers worldwide in the annual Skytrax survey, and World’s Leading Airline for the third consecutive year at the World Travel Awards.