Etihad Airways’ cargo subsidiary, Etihad Cargo has seen freight and mail volumes increase by four per cent in 2015 to 592,000 tonnes.
The airline added six new passenger locations with bellyhold capacity and freighter routes to Dakar, Nouakchott and Douala, bringing freighter-only destinations to 20. It took delivery of 15 aircraft, consisting of one Airbus A320, six Airbus A321s, four Airbus A380s and four Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. In 2016, Etihad is expecting to take delivery of 10 aircraft, including five Boeing 787-9s, three A380s and two Boeing 777-200 Freighters.
Etihad Airways president and chief executive officer, James Hogan says: “We enter 2016 with confidence as a stronger, more dynamic airline that will continue to support the evolution of Abu Dhabi as a global aviation hub.”
In 2015 Etihad launched a codeshare agreement with Pakistan International Airlines, and expanded existing codeshares with Air Serbia, American Airlines, flynas, Jet Airways, Korean Air, NIKI and S7 Airlines. It says this gave both its passenger and cargo network access to nearly 600 destinations through interline and codeshare partnerships.
Hogan continues: “We continue to face challenges, not least the protectionism of the major American and European legacy carriers. We will continue to fight to bring new competitive choice to travellers around the world.”
Its codeshare with airberlin in Germany was blocked by the Administrative Court of Braunschweig, which it blamed on the government caving in to lobbying and protectionism from Lufthansa.
