It now seems that Etihad Airways has secured 14 new flights from Abu Dhabi to Australia. It is reported that these new flights will run weekly to increase their flight frequency. Etihad Airways was just recently awarded the flights after the Australian government completed bilateral negotiations with the UAE in Canberra this past week.

Out of these new flights that have been added, seven will be allowed to operate to any gateway in all of Australia. This does include Etihad’s existing destinations in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The remaining seven weekly flights have been granted to Etihad Airways on the conditions that the operations also fly via or onto a regional airport.

These new flight slots will be available starting March of 2011 and will increase the UAE carrier’s access into Australia up to 42 flights a week. Etihad Airways chief executive, James Hogan, said that the carrier’s presence in Australia will continue to grow considerably. He said that they are committed to this important market and look forward to carrying greater numbers of business and leisure travelers from destinations across Etihad Airways’ expanding network to Australia.

Many airlines are now looking to expand their network as the airline industry is finally starting to pick back up. However, experts have warned that airlines need to be careful about how quickly they expand. Although the economy is starting to look up, it will be quite some time before things are back up to par with the way things used to be. Other experts say that things may never get back to the way they use to be, and the airline industry is changed forever.