Etihad Airways Soars above Crisis

At five years old Etihad Airways is still in its infancy but already has eyes on being the number one airline in the world as it expands its fleet, improves its services and flies to more destinations.

Now rated as one of the top 10 airlines in the world, according to Skytrax which launched its quality analysis of airlines in 2000, Etihad Airways, the UAE’s national airline, is a growing brand name.

Flying to 56 destinations by the end of 2009 the airline plans to double this by 2017 and is being assisted by the huge developments in its home city of Abu Dhabi.

By this time Abu Dhabi will be home to branches of the Guggenheim and Louvre Museums and will have become a major tourism destination with the completion of Yas and Saadiyat islands. Not only this but the government’s 2030 vision will have seen new districts added to the UAE capital and a new transport network.

“We have a commercial mandate we are to break even and break into profitability and when we look at our plans for 2030 we have a network plan of where we are flying to which we regularly refresh,” says James Hogan Etihad Airways CEO.

“We look at the cities where we believe we can bring the traffic to Abu Dhabi that will give us the traffic flows to build our airline and at the same time support the development of Abu Dhabi.”

From 340,000 passengers in 2004 to a projected seven million by the end of 2009 the airline will have 50 aircraft to facilitate this and plans to have up to 65 by 2012.

And even though there is an economic crisis going on and many airlines have faced a growing shortage of passengers Etihad’s projected growth continues.

“This is a very dynamic industry, every two-and-a-half years we seem to be hit by some form of crisis whether it is a fuel crisis, tsunami, Sars, war and now a major economic crisis that is compounded by swine flu,” adds Hogan.

“These all affect people’s travel plans and you need to obviously manage your costs extremely tightly and at Etihad we have a very strong balance sheet.”

Eithad’s revenues for 2008 reached $2.5billion and is targeting $3bn in 2009, which is good news for the job market as 1,000 new recruits are expected to be hired by the year end.

“We are focused on being one of the major airlines of the world in regard to safety, profitability and service and they all go hand-in-hand,” say Hogan.

“We are a top 10 rated airline, which isn’t bad for an airline that is just five years old.

“So we intend to be number one – to be the best airline in the world that is proud to be the flagship carrier of not only the UAE but from our home base the capital, Abu Dhabi.”

The benefits of having such as successful airline as part of Abu Dhabi’s economy became paramount at the Paris Airshow in June when it confirmed its $14bn engine order with General Electric were confirmed.

Further deals between Mudabala and its subsidiary, the Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, to service the engines in the capital promise to create more jobs in the country.

Etihad is also in collaboration with Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s zero carbon city, to maximise its sustainability and energy efficiency.

“We have signed a major partnership with Masdar and from a business point of view we have become a green company, recycling our wastage off the aircraft as efficiently as we can,” adds Hogan.