UAE aviation: Etihad Airways' CEO shares bold plans to double down on growth and talent

Abu Dhabi: Forget incremental progress; Etihad Airways is amid a transformative journey marked by audacious growth targets and a deep commitment to nurturing local talent.

The airline's blueprint for the coming years, unveiled in a recent discussion with the airline CEO Antonoaldo Neves, paints a picture of an ever-expanding network fuelled by a steady stream of new aircraft and a workforce set to grow by 2,000 annually for the next couple of years.

The airline currently increased its fleet from around 70 aircraft in 2022 to 100 and is gearing up for further expansion. "We're going to be adding 20 planes yearly for the next four to five years,” said Neves.

The CEO also unveiled plans for its upcoming Airbus A321LR, the $1 billion retrofit plan, and strong balance sheets.

Here are the top highlights from Gulf News’ conversation with Neves.

Q: You recently inked a deal with Boeing for 28 new long-haul aircraft, a mixture of B787 and B777X. How important is the deal for you?

Neves: That’s a very important thing for us. We’ve been buying planes, I would say, almost every month for the past two years. We will have a fleet of 67 to 70 planes by 2022; now, our fleet is 100. It's a new type (of aircraft) we will bring after 2030.

Why the 777x? Our stakeholders needed to realise that we are now planning for 2028. Many will arrive after 2030, so we're just preparing for the future. If you think 28 planes, that is a good number, but I'll probably need more. So, we will keep buying planes because we like to buy as we go. We do that because we like to leave fleet optionality. I don't want to lock in my future 100 per cent.

Q: Was (the issue of) Boeing facing delays highlighted during the recent visit from US President Donald Trump?

Neves: Etihad was only a portion of it. This is about the entire relationship the UAE has with the United States; we are an important but small portion of it. So, our focus was more on emphasising the great things we (US and UAE) do together. People don't know how much of a relationship we have today with the US. We took advantage of the visit to highlight that. So, we're just giving the naming rights from Etihad for Etihad Park, a beautiful facility in Queens (United States) that will transform the neighbourhood.

We took advantage of the visit not to announce one order here, one order there. It was much more to announce the amazing relationship we have as Etihad with the US, and it's a place where we will double the capacity in the future.

Q: How will the order for the Boeing 777Xs line up with your growth strategy?

Neves: That was a six-month discussion before we announced that order. It is connected to the Airbus 380. We now have seven A380s flying. We're going to go to nine one day, and these planes by 2032, we need to decide if we're going to do, like other airlines that are doing very well, extend a little bit more, or if we're going to replace. The 777x is a good candidate to replace the A380 if we decide to retire it. We keep all the 380s flying, and we bring on the 777s. Returning to my point about fleet flexibility, I may choose to keep the A380s flying (for) seven years more, and I may decide to have 15 planes, 15 B777s plus nine A380s. So, we need to keep that flexibility. (Etihad has retired one A380 in its fleet).

Q: How does all of this tie up with your retrofit programme?

Neves: Because we have a very young fleet, our aspiration is for it by 2028 to have consistency throughout the fleet. For example, I just launched an (Airbus) 321, a long-range class product with a narrow body. This is the first first-class product in the narrow body of the region. How does all this tie-up? And the reason is consistency. We want the customer to have a seamless experience throughout this journey. The retrofit is a massive organisational investment in terms of standardising everything. We will complete the retrofit by 2028.

Q: Have you started the retrofit programme?

Neves: We have started. We ordered the seats. We just defined the seats colors. It is a massive project. We go into the detail of how the blanket is going to look like. We are working with many seats manufacturers. We have Collins, we have Safran, and we have Recaro. It is different seats depending on the aircraft.

Q: How worried are you about the demand for travel to the US and the ongoing tariff war?

Neves: I've learned not to react to short-term volatility in my career. If you do the right thing, things will return to shape. I worry when you have a fundamental, economic issue that will last forever. Trade negotiations, for example, will naturally lead to a slightly different equilibrium, which is acceptable.  

Our exposure to cargo in the US is very small. It's only 3 per cent. In our case, cargo is improving. After all the trade talks started, cargo improved for us, which is counterintuitive.

Compared to other airlines, our cargo revenue is 20 per cent more per plane than other airlines. Things are going to be all right in terms of trade. The world needs trade, and that's going to happen. Countries want to have different arrangements, and that's fine. We are not seeing a drop in the passenger numbers (to the US) either.

Q: What are your plans for the Airbus A321LR?

Neves: I mean, many destinations. It's going go to many destinations. I don't want to make a specific point about that, because it may change. But it is everywhere that it can fly for six to seven hours it's going to go. This airplane can fly to Geneva, Krabi, Riyadh, Mumbai, and Delhi one day. So, we're also going to have another 321 that is not the LR, which is the high density that will have the same business and first-class seats.