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Dubai: Etihad Airways, which completes five years on Wednesday, might require Dh66.06 billion ($18 billion) funding to finance its fleet for the next 12 years, officials say.
In July, Etihad stunned the global aviation industry with a whopping 205-aircraft order, valued at Dh157.81 billion in list price.
The airline, which contributes 68 per cent to Abu Dhabi's non-oil GDP and 2.8 per cent of the emirate's total GDP, will have 158 aircraft on the fleet, serving 25 million passengers per year with 27,000 employees across 100 destinations by 2020, from the current fleet strength of 42 aircrafts serving 50 destinations with over 7,500 employees.
It has carried 14 million passengers in five years.
"No airline in the history of the aviation industry has ever achieved what Etihad has in the first five years," James Hogan, the airline's charismatic chief executive, told Gulf News on Monday.
Hogan, who joined Etihad in October 2006, is steering the loss-making carrier towards profitability by the end of 2010, amid dual challenges of high oil price and a global economic crises.
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