Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will increase its Abu Dhabi-Frankfurt services from 10 to 13 per week from 12 December, increasing to a double daily from 28 March 2010.

Etihad’s flights to Frankfurt, which were launched in June 2005, are among the most popular of its European services, providing high volumes of traffic into Abu Dhabi as well as transit traffic to destinations like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said: “Frankfurt has been one of Etihad’s most successful destinations because it retains strong volumes of business and leisure passengers throughout the year. “Abu Dhabi’s geographical location makes it ideal as a gateway for air travellers from Germany to connect to Australia, the Far East and throughout the Middle East easily and quickly.”

Passengers heading to Germany from Etihad’s destinations across the world can now choose from a morning or evening departure to Frankfurt, allowing a smooth transfer through Abu Dhabi airport.

The new flight schedule ensures that passengers flying out of Frankfurt will be able to choose from more than 80 connecting flights out of Abu Dhabi with transit times of less than four hours, including Bangkok, Sydney, Melbourne, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Kathmandu and Beijing.

Frankfurt is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth largest city in Germany. In addition to its service to Frankfurt, Etihad flies daily to Munich, the capital city of Bavaria in southern Germany.

Etihad operates a three cabin A330-200 aircraft between Abu Dhabi and Frankfurt, configured to carry 10 passengers in first class, 26 passengers in business class and 164 passengers in economy class.