A few of these surprised me. Starting with No. 1. Other surprises came from the cities not on the list.

These are the 10 most heavily traveled routes, leaving from Abu Dhabi, per Etihad Airways, the government-owned, Abu Dhabi-based carrier — which just had a record year, as this National story notes, by number of passengers carried.

I will list them from most passengers (No. 1), on down, with my semi-informed guess as to why that city is on the list.

1. Bangkok. This surprises me for one big reason: Of all the millions of expats living in the UAE, very few are Thais. So nearly the whole of the 740,000 people Etihad carried to Bangkok were tourists. Hmm. I wonder if this number is pushed by people coming from Europe and changing planes in Abu Dhabi. Maybe not many flights come at Bangkok from the west? But 740,000 fliers? That’s a lot.

2. Manila. Now this makes perfect sense. Something like 500,000 Filipinos live in the UAE, and many of them make decent salaries and like to go home, now and then. Not a big tourist destination, though.

3. London. Well, of course. Three factors here: Quite a few Brits live here, and they all seem to go home at least once a year, and often twice; other expats like to visit the British capital; Emiratis now and then will say “London is like our second home”.

4. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I think this number is powered by Saudi travelers, who come to the UAE in significant numbers just to let their hair down — a little. Or maybe to see the amazing concept of Arab women driving cars. And then fly Etihad back out of Abu Dhabi.

5. Paris. Well, duh.

6. Manchester, England. This is all about British expats going home; no one goes to Manchester for fun, aside to watch United or City play soccer.

7. Sydney, Some Aussies in town, and presumably they all stage through Sydney when returning anywhere in the country.

8. Frankfurt, Germany. This is all about changing planes. I bet 90 percent of Etihad’s passengers immediately transit to another plane.

9. Kuala Lumpur. OK. Makes sense. Rising economy, not just anybody flies there, so you get to Abu Dhabi and change planes.

10. Jakarta. Same-same as with KL, above. With an added chunk of passengers who are living and working in the UAE and returning home for a visit.

And the surprises at not being on the list? Anywhere in India. Or Sri Lanka. Or Pakistan.

The UAE population is about 25 percent Indian, about 2 million. (Twice as many Indians live in the UAE as do Emirati citizens.) And 1 million Pakistanis live here, and Sri Lanka is a significant tourist destination.

My hunch is that India and Pakistan traffic, from so close a starting point as the UAE, has lots of direct flights to a bunch of India’s population centers.

And that the more cost-sensitive traveler (Etihad is not a budget airline) is likely to use Fly Dubai, or the like, to get back to India. Or Pakistan.

Etihad now flies to three U.S. destinations, having added Washington this year, with New York and Chicago already on the list. But the number of Yanks in Abu Dhabi is not all that large. Not enough traffic to any of those cities to warrant more than one jumbo a day.

Interesting stuff. Steadily rising numbers for both Dubai and Abu Dhabi as places where people change planes while flying from Europe to the Far East.