Etihad announces best ever results
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad made a net profit of US$103 million last year when the increase in demand for flights outstripped its growth in capacity.
Its net profit in the previous year was $73 million.
The airline’s pre-tax earnings before interest reached $259 million in 2015, up from $257 million the 2014.
Its various partnerships delivered five million passengers, adding US$1.4 billion to its revenue last year.
President and CEO James Hogan said: "Our mandate is to build a sustainably profitable airline. A fifth year of net profits, with our best annual financial performance to date, shows that we are delivering against that goal.
"Our profitability clearly demonstrates the success of our business strategy, based on organic growth boosted by our partnerships.
"As well as operating profitability, we are building enterprise value across the airline and its many additional business streams."
Etihad carried17.6 million passengers in 2015, an increase of 18.9% year-on-year.
The growth in passenger volume continued to exceed Etihad’s capacity increase and outperformed regional market growth, which has seen a decline in load factors since mid-2014.
Six new destinations were added to its network – Edinburgh, Kolkata, Madrid, Hong Kong, Entebbe and Dar es Salaam – and capacity increased on 16 existing routes with bigger aircraft and more frequencies.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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