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Etihad is all set to clinch a $20 billion aircraft order for up to 100 planes in the next few months according to Mr. James Hogan, CEO, Etihad Airways. This would be the Abu Dhabi-owned Etihad’s biggest aircraft order so far this year.
Mr. Hogan said that first deliveries of the new aircraft, which could include more of Airbus' A380 superjumbos, are earmarked for 2011, Mr. Hogan said. "We're looking at narrow-bodied, wide-bodied and very large aircraft, A380s or B747-8s," he says. The carrier has ordered four A380’s already, with two to be delivered in 2013 and a further two in 2014.
Etihad Airways is on target to break even by 2010, but with rising oil prices, this might become difficult to achieve, according to Mr. Hogan. The present strategy was to tackle the high fuel bill by passing on the higher costs to its customers via fuel surcharges.
Mr. Hogan says fuel accounted for 35 per cent of the airline’s total cost. The airline is hedged 70 per cent this year and 40 per cent next year and 2 per cent in 2010.
The airline, which started operating six weekly Kuala Lumpur-Abu Dhabi flights in January 2007, is hoping to improve the passenger traffic between two countries.
“In the next five years, Abu Dhabi will become more of a destination. Today, 70 per cent of our traffic is transfer traffic and we want to move that to 50 per cent. We are building this air bridge between Europe, Asia, India and America. We want the traffic to flow efficiently over Abu Dhabi within a two-hour transfer period.
Jet Airways is also conducting daily services to Muscat from Kochi and Kozhikode and from Kozhikode and Mumbai to Doha respectively. The airline will operate daily direct flights between Mumbai and Abudhabi and between Delhi and Abudhabi, to cater to the traffic between India and UAE. According Mr. Naresh Goyal, the launch of Jet Airways’ operations to Abu Dhabi is an important advance to the airline’s growing route network in West Asia. The airline has also decided to connect Mumbai-Muscat and Kochi-Doha with daily direct flights due to huge passenger demand.
Commenting on the expansion plans, Mr. Naresh Goyal said, “…Having changed the way people fly in India, we will now take our very own brand of service and style, the Spitir of New India, to the rest of the world.”
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