Etihad Airways saw passenger numbers rise by 17% to a record of 8.29 million last year over 2010.
The United Arab Emirates airline carried almost 1.2 million additional passengers in the 12 months.
Etihad Airways’ busiest route was to Bangkok from Abu Dhabi with the airline carrying more than 500,000 passengers to the Thai capital during the year.
This was closely followed by London Heathrow (479,000), Manila (446,000), and Jeddah (289,000) which represented a 48% increase over 2010. Then came Sydney, Frankfurt, Paris, Manchester, Doha and Dublin to complete the list of the carrier’s 10 most popular routes.
Numbers were also boosted by the opening of new routes to Bangalore, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Chengdu, Dusseldorf, Tripoli, Shanghai and Nairobi.
President and CEO James Hogan said: “This result, achieved while much of the world was still very much in the economic doldrums and oil prices remained high, is testament to our emergence as a formidable force in the international aviation arena.
“It also reflects our commitment to sensible, strategic expansion which is why we launched eight new routes last year.”