Etihad Airways closes 2015 on a strong growth note
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The last year turned out to be a successful close for Etihad Airways.
The airline carried 17.4 million passengers resulting in a significant increase of 17% over 2014, and operated 97,400 flights which covered 467 m kilometres.
In total, Etihad Airways carried more than 75% of total passengers who travelled to and from Abu Dhabi International Airport. With the addition of the airline’s equity partners, the combined total rises to 84% of passenger traffic.
James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ president and chief executive officer, said: “In 2015, we were able to bring new competitive choice to travellers. No airline group is doing more to stimulate new competition in the aviation industry.”
The airline introduced six additional destinations to its global route network, with new flights to Kolkata, Madrid, Edinburgh, Entebbe, Hong Kong, and Dar es Salaam, and a new direct service to Brisbane.
The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which entered commercial service was deployed on routes to Washington DC, Zurich, Singapore and Brisbane. The Airbus A380 network was expanded with a second service to London Heathrow and new flights to Sydney and New York.
This year, the airline will commence its third daily A380 service to London Heathrow, and will add two new A380 destinations of Mumbai and Melbourne, while the Boeing 787 will start flying to five new cities, namely Düsseldorf, Perth, Shanghai, Istanbul and Johannesburg.
Etihad Airways also increased frequencies on 16 existing routes. These were Bangkok, Chennai, Dammam, Delhi, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Istanbul, Jeddah, Kochi, Kozhikode, Melbourne, Mumbai, Muscat, Seychelles, Tehran and Trivandrum.
The airline’s fleet consisted of 121 aircraft at the end of 2015 (a nine percent year-on-year), with an average age of 5.8 years. The airline took delivery of 11 Airbus (four A380s, six A321s and one A320) and four Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft in 2015, while further leased capacity was also added. To support the next phase, Etihad Airways will receive 10 aircraft deliveries this year, including five Boeing 787-9s, three A380s and two Boeing 777-200 Freighters.
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