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By Staff Writer
Etihad Airways has recorded strong growth in passenger and cargo volumes in its 2015 performance.
The airline carried 17.4 million passengers last year, marking an increase of 17 per cent compared 2014 levels, and operated 97,400 flights which covered 467 million kilometres.
The growth in passenger demand continued to surpass the airline’s capacity increase, underscoring the strength of its long-term growth strategy.
In total, Etihad Airways carried more than 75 per cent of the total passengers who travelled to and from Abu Dhabi International Airport in 2015. With the addition of the airline’s equity partners that operate flights into the UAE capital, the combined total rises to 84 per cent of passenger traffic at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
“In 2015, we were able to bring new competitive choice to millions of travelers, through our award-winning services and through the growing networks of our equity partners. No airline group is doing more to stimulate new competition in the aviation industry,” said James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer.
The carrier had introduced six additional routes to its global network in 2015, with new flights to Kolkata, Madrid, Edinburgh, Entebbe, Hong Kong, and Dar es Salaam, and a new direct service to Brisbane.
The period also saw Etihad Airways’ fleet boosted with the deployment of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which entered commercial service on routes to Washington DC, Zurich, Singapore and Brisbane. The Airbus A380 network was expanded with a second service to London Heathrow and new flights to Sydney and New York.
This year, the airline has announced it will commence its third daily A380 service to London Heathrow, and will add two new A380 destinations of Mumbai and Melbourne, while the Boeing 787 will start flying to five new cities, namely Düsseldorf, Perth, Shanghai, Istanbul and Johannesburg.
The airline increased frequencies on 16 existing routes across the world in 2015. These were Bangkok, Chennai, Dammam, Delhi, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Istanbul, Jeddah, Kochi, Kozhikode, Melbourne, Mumbai, Muscat, Seychelles, Tehran and Trivandrum.
In April 2015, the airline obtained regulatory approval from Switzerland’s Federal Office of Civil Aviation, FOCA, to finalise a 33.3 per cent investment in the Swiss regional carrier, Darwin Airline.
In June, Darwin Airline, trading as Etihad Regional, became the latest addition to Etihad Airways’ equity partners network, which also includes airberlin, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Alitalia, Jet Airways and Virgin Australia. Etihad Airways’ equity partnerships represent the seventh largest global grouping of airlines, together flying more than 100 million guests.
Etihad Airways also reported strong cargo volumes for 2015, with 592,090 tonnes of freight and mail flown in total, a four per cent increase year-on-year. The airline accounted for 88 per cent of cargo imports, exports and transfers at Abu Dhabi International Airport last year.
During 2015, Etihad Cargo enhanced its global reach by offering bellyhold capacity on Etihad Airways’ six new passenger destinations, bringing to 96 the total number of passenger destinations on which cargo services are currently provided. Etihad Cargo also expanded its freighter services to several new markets including Dakar, Nouakchott and Douala, bringing the number of freighter-only destinations operated to 20.