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Etihad to Keep Costs in Check; Expand Services

ABU DHABI — Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based national airline of UAE, will strive to keep the costs in check even while continuing to expand services worldwide in 2009.

“2009 will be another important and challenging year for Etihad. A key focus will be to keep controllable costs in check, while at the same time to ensure that our customer services remains consistently high,” the Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways James Hogan said in a statement issued here to Khaleej Times.

According to him Etihad “continues to perform extremely well in all markets despite the current economic conditions and against an industry backdrop that remains extremely difficult.”

“We continue to experience growing passenger figures as a result of investing in high quality services both on the ground and in the air, besides our home base at Abu Dhabi which is ideally positioned as an air bridge between the East and the West,” James Hogan said.

The airline had set a goal of carrying six million passengers by the end of 2008, with average seat factors forecast to 75 per cent.

The CEO did not however disclose whether this goal had been achieved as the final performance figures of the just-concluded year are being compiled.

The number of passengers had grown from 340,000 to one million in 2005, 2.8 million in 2006 and 4.6 million in 2007.

“Etihad will continue to expand its flight network across the world during 2009, with new services to Melbourne and Lagos already confirmed, and other destinations which we expect to announce during the year,” James Hogan said.

Etihad now serves 50 destinations across the world, with the addition of flights to six cities across the globe launched last year. The six destinations launched last year are Moscow, Almaty (the commercial capital of Kazakhstan), Minsk (the capital city of Belarus) and the Indian cities of Kozhikkode and Chennai.

Recently, the airline was awarded the rights to start a five-flights-a-week service from Abu Dhabi to Tokyo.

However, the services to Tokyo will become operational only from March 2010.

On the financial performance of the airline, the CEO said, “the aim of breaking-even by 2010 is still a very real target as long as fuel prices stabilise and demand from customer holds.”

Etihad had made a history of the sorts in July last by announcing the largest ever aircraft order at the Famborough Airshow in the UK .

The total deal for up to 205 wide-body and narrow-body planes was worth $ 43 billion, at list prices, and comprised of 100 firm orders from a combination of Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

· ramavarman@khaleejtimes.ae