Dubai Airshow 2023: Etihad Airways CEO on the growth of the airline for 20 years

Gulf News

National carrier Etihad Airways’ future ‘sustainable’ growth strategy hinges heavily on Zayed International Airport’s new Terminal A, airline CEO Antonoaldo Neves said on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow on Tuesday.  Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/dubai-airshow-2023-terminal-a-critical-for-etihad-airways-growth-says-ceo-1.1699958213397  See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #Etihad #DubaiAirshow

Transcript

00:0020 years is an important mark for us. We've been, I mean, the way I see Etihad is two very

00:07different phases. We're just starting a new phase. So the first 15 years was all about setting

00:12aspirations very high. And that's how startups are built, right? To set the bar very high.

00:16We restructured the airline. I mean, Etihad restructured itself, downsized. And now I

00:21think we have the right size and we have an opportunity to grow again. So the plan

00:29is to double the size of the fleet in the next seven years. The plan is to get to about 30,

00:3633 million passengers in the next seven years. What is important is that you understand that

00:40we have a clear mandate from the shareholder. And the mandate is very, very simple, right?

00:46Deliver extraordinary customer service and at the same time make money, right? So that's the

00:52mandate that we have today. So we're taking a very business oriented approach to our growth.

00:59We have a seven year plan, not a 10 year plan, just because it ties better with the fleet plan

01:06that we have. This year we added 16 planes to the fleet. This year we grew 35%, this year only.

01:14Next year we're going to be growing 20 to 25%. So we can deliver growth, right?

01:19The biggest challenge that I think we have as an industry and we at Etihad have is on the supply

01:26chain side. If I have to choose one big challenge, I would choose that challenge. How can I address

01:32the supply chain problem that we still have in the world? And it's going to last for two, three

01:36years more because, I mean, there is a lot of demand. The geopolitical situations you always

01:44have, right? It's going to be, we need to understand how to manage that. And in our case,

01:51right now, the impact is very small. We had only, if you're talking about Israel, for instance,

01:58right? We had only seven flights a day to Israel. We now have about four, seven flights a week,

02:03I'm sorry. One flight a day. Now we have only four flights a week and we're committed to the market,

02:10right? It's important that everyone understands that as long as it's safe to fly,

02:13our commitment to the markets are there.

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