Etihad Airways has announced its financial and operating results for the first half of 2022, posting a core operating profit of $296m. The airline added that they were impressed by its profit results as, over 2022, fuel costs have increased almost 60% in comparison to 2021. Quarters one and two saw Etihad carry 4.02m passengers, which was over three million more than last year (980,000 passengers) with an average seat load factor of 75%. The results showed that passenger numbers increased consistently over the first six months of 2022, rising by 21.9% as travel demand recovered. The airline noticed a trend in its findings – when Abu Dhabi further relaxed pandemic-related restrictions in February, passenger numbers increased. Additionally, the network grew by 46% in comparison to 2021 as the airline connected Abu Dhabi to 71 passenger and cargo destinations across 45 countries. In 2022, Etihad launched five summer services, including new seasonal routes to Heraklion (Crete) and Nice (France). Tony Douglas, the group CEO, said: “As air travel came back in 2022, Etihad carried over 4 million passengers to and from our home of Abu Dhabi.” Commenting on the drivers behind Etihad’s 2022 progress, Douglas added: “Sustainability continued to be a priority area for Etihad as we entered our fuel-efficient A350-1000s into service and continued our decarbonisation efforts.”
The highlights
Etihad has stated that its financial results demonstrated more trends following Covid-19:
- Passenger revenues tripled in the first six months of the year in comparison to 2021, climbing to $1.25b.
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- As more countries in Etihad’s network relaxed Covid-19 restrictions, more business and leisure travellers began to fly via the airline.
- Cargo operations continued to deliver revenue of $802m in the first half of 2022, representing an increase of 6% on the same period last year.
- The increase in passenger volumes limited belly-hold capacity, leading to a 19% reduction in freight carried (295,020 tonnes).
- Fixed overhead and finance costs decreased in the first half of 2022, falling by 9% (or $29m) and 13% ($22m) respectively.
- This was a result of its focus on cost containment.
- Etihad Guest, the airline’s loyalty programme, received more new member acquisitions in June 2022 than any year previously, increasing to 7.95 million members globally.
- Following this, member engagement levels translated into more card spending across the programme’s portfolio of UAE banks than before, supported by a new partnership with Emirates NBD.
- Flight redemptions increased 15% in 2022’s first six months, compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, with over 737,000 flights taken.
On the developments, Adam Boukadida, Etihad’s CFO, commented: “In the first half, we managed to further reduce our fixed overhead and finance costs by $50m compared to the first half of 2021. “We reduced the level of debt on our balance sheet and improved our EBITDA by more than $600m. We kept a tight hold on our cost base – as a result, our operating costs only rose by 26% despite a 46% increase in deployed capacity.”
