Etihad Airways said on Saturday it has achieved a new record for flights bookings in a single day.


The Abu Dhabi airline said the milestone was reached on Monday June 11 when more than 65,500 flight bookings were made.


The figure exceeded the previous record - on January 9 - by 13 percent, the carrier said in a statement.

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It added that passenger bookings for June 14-17 were the highest of any four days previously experienced by Etihad.


Advance premium cabin bookings for a single day were also set to beat previous Etihad Airways records, with nearly 2900 combined bookings already received for Diamond First and Pearl Business Class flights for Sunday.


James Hogan, Etihad Airways' president and CEO, said: "Etihad Airways is experiencing exceptional demand for flights across our network for this weekend and into the summer.


"We are delighted to have broken our own records for flights bookings and will look to raise the bar further over the coming months."


The airline said new records have also been set by the its new global media advertising campaign that was launched at the beginning of June.


The "Why" television commercial has now received more than 876,000 views on YouTube for the English version, and almost 100,000 views for the Arabic version of the video.


Etihad Airways will operate 1,262 flights each week in the summer of 2012, compared to 1,106 flights in the summer of 2011, an increase of 14 percent.


The airline has 280,498 seats on its flights available each week compared to 235,818 seats per week last summer, an increase of 19 percent.


Since summer 2011 Etihad Airways has launched services to Shanghai, Nairobi, Basra, Male, Seychelles, Chengdu, Dusseldorf, and Tripoli. On July 1, it will begin flying to Lagos.