Etihad Airways’ $4 Billion Expansion Plan Stalls

Etihad Airways’ $4 Billion Expansion Plan Stalls
Deals quickly gave the Abu Dhabi carrier scale, but profits have been harder to come by.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-19/etihad-airways-4-billion-expansion-plan-stalls

Today in Seychelles
1 hr ·
Saturday 27 January 2018
Aviation
Etihad Airways in deep trouble after strategy review fails


After a failed strategy review plan, the airline has pulled five of its airline freighters from service, consequently forcing the pilots to down their tools and take close to 18 months unpaid leave to enable the company to rethink a new plan, this includes reviewing its fleet requirements and retiring some aircraft.
by C. Ouma
The United Arab Emirates based airline suffered a US$1.87 billion loss in 2016, its first loss since 2010 after spending billions of dollars buying stakes in other airlines as a way of reviewing its business plan.
According to Reuters, Etihad has removed its Airbus Cargo planes which include five A330 Freighters from its fleet schedule for commercial reasons and it has opted for a cargo plane fleet of all Boeing 777 freighters. "This freighter is the right aircraft for our long-term requirements," Peter Baumgartner, the chief executive of Etihad's airline operations explained. A source familiar with the state-owned gulf carrier has said that the airline is considering selling or leasing the Airbus freighters. Etihad's cargo operation slowed tremendously in 2016 to report flat growth.
According to Etihad’s most recent data on its website, it employed 2,225 pilots for a fleet of 122 jets as of February 2017. However, the airline has made few comments on its strategy review in which hundreds of positions have been removed and several commercial passenger routes cut since it was launched. Etihad however, declined to comment on whether it had offered its pilots unpaid leave.
One of the latest airlines to be affected by the failed strategy review plan is Air Seychelles in which Etihad holds a 40% stake. It was recently announced that international flights by Air Seychelles to Paris and Antananarivo will be stopped as from March this year and it is currently conducting an exercise where it is estimated that hundreds of employees will be made redundant.
The Abu Dhabi based airline once owned as many as eight minority stakes in other airlines. However, recent developments pushed the airline to sell two, and another two of the airlines which included Air Berlin and Alitalia filed for administration last year.
Tony Douglas, who joined the Etihad Aviation Group this month as its new Chief Executive following the resignation of its former CEO James Hogan who had been the chief architect of the previous strategic plan, is yet to take any firm strategic decisions let alone decide on what to do with the airline’s current investments.

https://www.facebook.com/todayinsey/photos/a.417785501592599.84226.414719135232569/1560622970642174/?type=3&theater

Air Seychelles and Etihad Airways expand codeshare to Baku
http://www.nation.sc/article.html?id=258147