Etihad targets 25m passengers by 2020

Etihad Airways has unveiled ambitious plans to be carrying 25 million passengers a year by 2020.

Speaking in New York during a promotional visit to the USA and Canada, James Hogan, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi-based airline, also announced an ambition to double the number of cities served from 50 to 100.

Mr Hogan referred to Etihad's order of more than 100 Airbus and Boeing aircraft at the Farnborough airshow this year as evidence of the airline's business intentions.

"Etihad is already a substantial business and we signalled our intentions for the future by making recently one of the largest ever commercial aircraft orders," he said.

"Our projections to 2020 reflect that order and the scale of our ambitions, closely aligned to the growth of Abu Dhabi as an economic and tourism powerhouse."

Etihad has flown more than four million passengers across its network of 48 destinations so far this year and is on track to carry six million travellers by the end of 2008.

The months between June and August this year represented the busiest summer period in the airline's four-year history, with more than 1.6 million people using its services.

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