New route from Dublin to Beijing

A new longhaul air route to the Beijing Olympics for sports fans opened up today.

Etihad Airways, which already runs daily flights from Dublin to Abu Dhabi, has now added a connection to the Chinese capital.

The carrier, which is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, is the new co-sponsor of this season’s GAA All-Ireland Hurling Championship along with RTE and Guinness.

Etihad’s flights from Abu Dhabi to Beijing will operate every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The airline said it carried 44,000 passengers on its six flights a week on its Dublin to Abu Dhabi route since it began in July.

That service has now been expanded to seven days and is targeting up to 90,000 passengers in 2008.

The Dublin-Abu Dhabi route has been popular with backpackers and shoppers as well as Irish people visiting friends and family in Australia and New Zealand.

Etihad said it carried a total of 4.6 million passengers last year on all its routes, compared to 2.8 million in 2006.

The airline already flies to 45 destinations from Abu Dhabi which include Sydney, Manila, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Bangkok.