Etihad Airways is set to showcase its products and services at this year’s Bahrain International Travel Expo (Bite),

The airline will exhibit its expanding route network, latest international sports sponsorships and award-winning products and services at the event, which will take place from May 14-17 at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre.

This will be the first time that the Abu Dhabi-based airline has exhibited at BITE, which is now in its fourth year. The annual event aims to showcase current travel trends, developments and emerging destinations around the world.

To mark its recent sponsorships of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team and the Abu Dhabi Etihad Airways F1 Grand Prix, which comes to the UAE capital next year, the airline will display a life-size replica of a Formula 1 racing car on its stand throughout the four-day exhibition.

“We’re anticipating a great deal of interest in our eye-catching stand. The Bahrain International Travel Expo is one of the largest travel exhibitions in the Middle East and therefore an ideal opportunity for Etihad to showcase its award-winning products and services, as well as the airline’s growing involvement in international sports sponsorships,” said Etihad Airways’ regional general manager Middle East and Africa Maen Abdul Halim.

The Abu Dhabi-based airline’s stand will also feature the airline’s award-winning first class and business class seats alongside displays of Etihad’s newest destination of Beijing and an exciting line–up of new routes set to be launched later this year.

The airline in the summer will begin flying to Calicut and Chennai, after securing flying rights earlier this year to four new destinations in India. Etihad is currently finalising when it will commence flights to the two other Indian destinations of Jaipur and Kolkata.

The airline also plans to fly to Moscow and the Kazakh city of Almaty in December 2008 and to the Belarus capital of Minsk early next year.

Alongside the fully-flat business class and rotating first class seats, Etihad will have interactive demonstrations of the many rewards and benefits of its award-winning Etihad Guest loyalty programme. Launched in August 2006, Etihad Guest now boasts more than 350,000 members worldwide and expects to exceed the half million mark by the end of 2008.

Members of the Etihad Holidays team will also be on hand to discuss recent developments. The airline’s rapidly expanding holiday division has recently unveiled its new summer brochure and also re-launched its website, which now incorporates new features such as location maps, as well as the latest special offers, the airline said. – TradeArabia News Service