Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has announced plans for a second daily non-stop service between Abu Dhabi and Melbourne from 1 August 2015. 

The additional flight will be operated by a B777-300ER aircraft. This will double the airline’s freight handling capacity providing new opportunities for trade.  

In conjunction with its equity partners, Etihad Airways will offer double daily services to Rome and Milan with Alitalia, Berlin and Düsseldorf with airberlin, and Belgrade with Air Serbia. There will also be new daily one-stop connections to destinations such as Edinburgh, Geneva, Madrid and Zurich on the Etihad Airways network, Stuttgart and Vienna operated by the Air Berlin Group, and Venice operated by Alitalia, and improved access to other key destinations such as Athens and Brussels.  

James Hogan, president and CEO of Etihad Airways, said: “We commenced flights to Melbourne in 2009 and it has since become one of the strongest routes on our network. Together with Virgin Australia and our other partner airlines, we have built a large and loyal customer base which has asked us for more choice. Today, I’m pleased to answer that call by announcing a doubling of our award-winning services to Melbourne.