Etihad Airways saw bookings take off by 300 percent in the two weeks after travel restrictions were lifted, according to Tony Douglas, group chief executive officer, Etihad Aviation Group.
In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business, Douglas admitted that the difference in operations between today against this time last year, when Covid restrictions were very much in place in many countries across the world, is “like night and day”.
He said: “The delta variant threw a curveball at the recovery of global travel this year. Travel restrictions to markets in Europe and the Indian subcontinent slowed us down in the first half of the year, but importantly, we have seen bookings jump by 300 percent to 600 percent in the two weeks after travel restrictions being eased.”
Major markets, such as India, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, all recently reopened their borders for international travel, without quarantine restrictions, and Abu Dhabi also removed the quarantine requirement for all vaccinated travellers arriving from abroad in September. While the US is ready to reopen to the world on November 8.
Tony Douglas, group chief executive officer, Etihad Aviation Group.
Douglas revealed that, although the passenger side “continues to take the brunt of the pandemic”, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier’s network has grown steadily to over 60 destinations.
He added: “Cargo operations meanwhile performed strongly and were a key driver for the business as we continued to play a critical role in facilitating international trade throughout the pandemic.”
Through the Hope Consortium, Etihad has transported millions of vaccines and demand for the aviation giant’s pharmaceutical logistics has nearly doubled.
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Etihad has also established a comprehensive sustainability strategy with the ambitious target of net zero emissions by 2050.
Central to that strategy is the Etihad Greenliner Programme, a two-year partnership between Etihad and Boeing using Etihad’s Boeing 787 fleet as a test bed for sustainability improvements in partnership with organisations across the aviation ecosystem.
“Since 2019 we have collaborated on areas including inflight product, airspace management, flight deck tools, sustainable fuel, and even brought in expertise from NASA to look at noise levels created by aircraft as part of Boeing’s ecoDemonstrator programme,” said Douglas.
“Even through 2020 and 2021, despite the challenges of Covid-19, Etihad Airways continued to pave the way for more environmentally friendly travel by implementing key sustainability initiatives under the Greenliner Programme,” he added.
The Etihad Greenliner Programme is a two-year partnership between Etihad and Boeing.
The work culminated with the inaugural EY20 Sustainable Flight, earlier this month, which brought together the best of the past two years’ learnings into a single flight.
“The fact that sustainability has stayed on the agenda during the pandemic is testament to just how important the topic is to Etihad – the sustainability challenges faced globally will still be around when Covid-19 is no longer an issue,” said Douglas.
In August, Etihad Airways recorded a core operating loss for the first half of 2021, but month-on-month passenger volumes had grown 10 percent since the airline restarted passenger operations in July 2020 after halting flights to stem the spread of Covid-19.
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