Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has won the highly coveted "leading airline" award at the World Travel Awards (WTAs) for the Middle East and Africa region. Votes for the WTAs were taken from nearly 170,000 travel industry professionals from around the world, of which 110,000 are travel agents, a spokesman of the airlines said here, on Friday.
According to him the airline drew particular praise at the WTA ceremony for building a global flight network of 42 destinations including 4 destinations in Pakistan. Etihad Airways winning this prestigious award in just 42 months of operation was described by the awards' organisers as "an unprecedented achievement in the air travel industry".
"This is fantastic news, especially in the face of strong competition from some very good airlines, particularly those based in the Middle East, "the spokesman quoted James Hogan, Etihad Airways' chief executive as having said. Etihad was also presented with the awards for 'leading first class airline' and 'leading airline website' at the high profile ceremony at Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace Hotel.