Airlines focus on sustainability, efficiency in view of virus effects

DUBAI: The future of international travel and tourism came under the spotlight on Tuesday on the Global Stage at the 2022 edition of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM).

During a session entitled ‘Airlines evolving for the future’, hosted by John Strickland, Director, JLS Consulting, Adel Abdullah Al Ali, Board Member and Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia and Tony Douglas, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etihad Aviation Group, shared insights from the COVID pandemic and the strategies they are adopting as the world emerges from the unprecedented challenges of recent years.

The discussion at ATM followed a successful partnership between the two UAE airlines in July 2020, which saw the launch of Air Arabia Abu Dhabi. Opening the session, Al Ali said: “It has been a difficult two years, but I believe as an industry, we have adapted to meet those challenges. The period also forced the airline industry to reflect on what was working and what wasn’t. In our case, this has led to an even greater focus on efficiency.”

Air Arabia achieved profits across each quarter of 2021, with the codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways playing a major role in its success. The airline has recently launched 44 new routes and is preparing to take two new airlines to the skies this summer with ‘Fly Jinnah’ in Pakistan, and ‘Fly Arna’ in Armenia. Air Arabia’s 60-strong fleet is expected to triple in the coming months with 120 aircrat on order and a goal of 160-200 planes by the year 2030. Despite this planned expansion, Al Ali remains firmly focused on efficiency, “Our philosophy has been that size doesn’t mater to Air Arabia, profitability does.’’

Douglas echoed this sentiment: “Leading up to 2017, Etihad Airways was heavily focused on accelerated growth leading to the airline becoming overstretched. Big is not necessarily beautiful and what you can commercially sustain from a profitability point of view is the name of the game moving forward.”

When Douglas took the reins at Etihad Airways in 2017, he kick-started a radical restructuring which aimed to create an airline where the fleet was driven by the network, rather than the network being driven by the fleet.