Etihad Airways, the national airline of United Arab Emirates (UAE), formally inaugurated its new office in Karachi on Thursday. The official reception was hosted by Etihad Airways Pakistan Area Manager Joost den Hartog and Kevin Steole, Etihad's head of sales, at the company's state of the art workspace in the Forum Shopping Mall.
Speaking on the occasion, Hartog said that the new office would improve the quality of services for customers in Karachi, a very important and strategic market in our ambitious world-wide growth plans.
The new office will provide our passengers easier access to flights, greater comfort in booking and improved services and facilities, enhancing our guests complete travel experience, he added.
Furthermore, Etihad resident manager said, it would offer greater opportunities to build our customer base in the Karachi region, networking with local business and travel trade.
The new local office set up is a result of rapid growth in the Karachi market since the introduction of flights direct from Dubai in November 2004.
The route was developed and implemented as part of Etihad's objective to provide direct link between Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, to key business and leisure destinations world-wide.
Steole on the occasion said since inception, the Abu Dhabi-Karachi route has provided a link between the booming economy of Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan, and business and trade centers of Middle East and Europe.
"This new achievement is another landmark in Etihad's vision to be a world leader in commercial aviation," he said, adding that it also serves as an identifiable performance indicator in the airline's award winning reputation as the world's fastest growing airline.
Etihad Airways now flies to Karachi four times a week.