By
: Nissar Hoath and Shweta Jain on Wednesday,
July 02, 2008
Etihad
Airways is continuing to take delivery of
aircraft with five new Airbus planes due by the
year-end.
"Etihad is expanding its global flying programme
and adding aircraft to a fleet, which will grow
from the current 37 to 42 by the end of 2008,"
spokesman Thomas Clarke told Emirates Business.
"The new aircraft will consist of three A320s
and two A340s."
"In 2004 Etihad began with the largest start-up
fleet order of 29 aircraft worth Dh29.4 billion
and it is now building a balanced fleet of
wide-body and narrow-body aircraft allowing it
to better serve short-haul and long-haul
destinations.
"In addition to this last year we placed an
order worth more than Dh8bn for 12 airbus
aircraft at the Paris Air Show."
Clarke said the airline contributed Dh10.8bn to
Abu Dhabi's non-oil gross domestic product in
2007 and helped generate or support 48,813
non-oil jobs in the emirate. He said based on
Etihad's current growth projections the
airline's economic contribution to Abu Dhabi's
GDP would increase by 67 per cent to Dh18.1bn by
2011 and the carrier would help support 84,254
jobs in the emirate. By 2016 the GDP figure is
set to increase to Dh28bn with 140,565 jobs
supported.
The airline yesterday released its first
half-year report for 2008, which records
passenger growth of 41 per cent compared with
the same period last year. The number of
passengers rose to 2.8 million from two million.
The report says the airline is well on track to
achieve its target of carrying six million
passengers by the year-end.
CEO James Hogan said: "Etihad's performance
during the first six months of 2008 has been
extremely strong against a well documented
backdrop of higher fuel prices and economic
slow-down in parts of Europe and the Americas.
"Despite these significant challenges faced by
many airlines Etihad is not seeing any signs of
a decline in demand in any of our markets or any
of our cabins. Indeed our forward bookings are
currently well ahead of expectations and we
anticipate another very busy summer," he said.
The report reveals that Etihad witnessed the
busiest day in its four-year history last Friday
when a record-breaking 19,709 passengers flew on
the airline's network at a seat factor of 85 per
cent.
2.8m passengers fly etihad in H1
Etihad Airways carried 2.8 million passengers in
the first half of the year, recording a 41 per
cent increase from a year earlier.
The Abu Dhabi-based carrier, which said
yesterday it is well on track to achieve its
target of carrying six million passengers by the
year-end, achieved average seat factors of 73
per cent across its network of 45 destinations
between January 1 and June 30.
Etihad will also add non-stop flights to five
new destinations – Minsk, Kozhikode, Chennai,
Moscow and Almaty – from its base in Abu Dhabi.
The airline's spokesperson, Iain Burns, on
Monday said Etihad plans to place an order for
between 50 and 100 aircraft at the 60th
Farnborough Airshow to be held from July 13 to
20, despite increasing fuel prices.
Etihad
Airways is continuing to take delivery of
aircraft with five new Airbus planes due by the
year-end. 
