Skift Take
Getaway hotspots Greece and Spain aren’t your normal Etihad destinations, but they have actually certainly helped the airline company’s bottom line this summer season.
Matthew Parsons
The CEO of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways stated on Wednesday there was cause for some optimism after July marked the airline’s greatest month in about a year and a half.
The state-owned provider filled simply over 40 percent of its seats in July, CEO Tony Douglas stated in an online interview with air travel consultancy CAPA, versus just 24.9 percent over the first six months of the year.
Douglas attributed the July guest traffic increase to nations relieving travel restrictions as more people in those nations were immunized against Covid-19.
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That had actually given cause for optimism, he stated, though he cautioned that the operating environment stayed tough.
“We need to be reasonable in handling costs with a fixation to detail,” Douglas stated, including that he expected the corporate travel segment to remain reduced for some time.
Etihad halved its operating loss to $400 million in the first half of the year as the airline slashed costs. Operating earnings, however, diminished almost 30 percent as it taped a 71 percent drop in traveler traffic with simply 1 million carried.
Etihad has actually operated flights over the peak summer season to vacation destinations like Mykonos in Greece and Malaga in Spain, puts the airline did not generally fly to before the pandemic.
Douglas said he thought there continued to be pent up need for travel, mentioning a 300-600 percent increase in sales whenever Abu Dhabi adds destinations to its quarantine-free travel list.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; modifying by Jason Neely and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
This article was from Reuters and was legally accredited through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email secured]
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