By KINIBIZ
Etihad Airways has reported a 17% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in its passenger numbers for 2015. The national airline of the United Arab Emirates said it had carried 17.4 million passengers in 2015 on 97,400 flights throughout its route network.
The carrier said the growth in passenger demand continued to surpass its capacity increase, and said that this underscored the strength of its long-term growth strategy.
In total, Etihad carried more than 75% of the 23.3 million passengers who travelled to and from Abu Dhabi International Airport in 2015. When added together with the numbers recorded by the airline’s equity partners which operated flights into the UAE capital, the total rose to 84% of all passenger traffic.
Etihad Airways president and chief executive officer James Hogan said: “In 2015, we were able to bring new competitive choice to millions of travellers, through our award-winning services and through the growing networks of our equity partners. 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 in 2015, with new flights to Kolkata, Madrid, Edinburgh, Entebbe, Hong Kong, and Dar es Salaam, and a new direct service to Brisbane.
2015 also saw Etihad Airways deploy its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft which entered commercial service on routes to Washington DC, Zurich, Singapore and Brisbane. While its Airbus A380 network was expanded with a second service to London Heathrow and new flights to Sydney and New York.
In 2016, the airline will commence its third daily A380 service to London Heathrow and will add two new A380 destinations, flying to Mumbai and Melbourne, while its Boeing 787 aircraft will start flying to five new cities – Düsseldorf, Perth, Shanghai, Istanbul and Johannesburg.
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