Etihad Airways has marked two significant milestones in Manchester, officially launching a new line maintenance facility and double-daily services to the city.

From August 2011, the airline operates 14 non-stop Manchester-Abu Dhabi return flights, with smooth connections every day to Karachi, Lahore & Islamabad and twice weekly to Peshawar.

The opening of the new Manchester maintenance facility this afternoon is the airline’s sixth outside Abu Dhabi. Etihad’s existing facilities are in Bombay, Dublin, Lahore, London-Heathrow and Sydney.

The new facility is equipped with the latest technology and will perform all scheduled and non-scheduled line maintenance. Services to be undertaken in Manchester include transit, daily and weekly checks, scheduled engineering services and fault repairs for the aircraft systems and in the cabins.