Etihad Airways is hoping to take advantage of congestion at Dubai airport to win new business for its Abu Dhabi home base, in the fiercely competitive market for long-haul flights routed through the Gulf.
The airline wants to more than triple passenger numbers to 30mn by 2030, up from 13mn last year, by attracting more people to break their long-haul flights with a stopover in Abu Dhabi.
Etihad, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, mainly competes on long-haul flights with Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines. All four are expanding, though Etihad remains the smallest. Saudi Arabia is also planning to launch an airline next year.
Etihad’s chief executive Antonoaldo Neves told the Financial Times that there was plenty of room and demand for Abu Dhabi to expand its aviation industry.
“From an airline perspective, Dubai is really congested right now. There is not a lot of capacity left in Dubai, and . . . the UAE now has Abu Dhabi to grow,” he said. Dubai International airport, which is an hour’s drive from Abu Dhabi, handled 87mn passengers in 2023. Executives at its biggest airline Emirates said it could soon run out of space there. A new airport capable of handling up to 230mn people a year is being built but will not be open for years.
Since he was appointed in 2022, Neves has steered away from direct competition with Emirates and Qatar Airways on “ultra-long-haul” flights that link cities like New York and Sydney via one stop in the Gulf.
“That’s not my fight . . . other airlines like Emirates do it very well,” he said.
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