Etihad Airways, Chief Revenue Officer, Arik De at the CAPA World Aviation Summit 2023

Transcript

Arik De:I think we are relaunching our Journey 2030, which is the next 5, 6 years of our journey as an airline. We are 20 years old now, so this is the— the teenage years are behind us and we are now looking forward to the next phase in who we are as an airline. We plan to triple up our guest numbers. We are at around 11 million today. We'll be around 33 million by the next 6 years. We plan to more than double our fleet from 80 to around 160 and play a larger role in connecting Abu Dhabi to the world. The demand environment is holding. I think for us, we look forward and we're looking at it with an idea that, you know, in general demand is stable. I think we benefit from the fact that we have so many different sources and so many different flows that go through our network, and that diversity in our network allows us to have a diversified offering. So of course, there's regional— regionalized conflict that flares up in, you know, in parts of the world. But given the fact that we connect so many different parts, we are quickly able to redeploy our assets. And so for us, you know, we are really focused on our own self and what we can accomplish versus worrying too much about, you know, what's going on around us. Of course, we would be naive to not think about it, but it's not something we control, right? So we are very disciplined on what we control. Well, I encourage you to fly our A380 on the London service and good luck finding a seat. So I think we've done a really great job bringing the service back. Our guests love the service. You know, our Residence is probably still the flagship of the skies, and it allowed us to address the supply chain shortages in the industry with a product that just was fit for purpose at the right time. We have some of the industry-leading numbers in terms of business and first. I'm encouraged that there are still seats to sell because then there's an opportunity to grow further. But, you know, for us with our home market, I think we've been able to do a good job on the corporate segments locally, and we're seeing a really big uptick in premium leisure, and our network has expanded. We fly now double daily to a place like Maldives. We fly double daily to a place like Phuket. Which are all leisure destinations, a lot of premium leisure demand, and we're seeing that holds for now. This is our 20th anniversary year, and this month is our 20th anniversary month, and we also opened a new airport. So it was kind of a fitting way to show off to the world what we are made of and what we are going to go forward in the future. And what better way than have you guys here bringing together all these wonderful speakers in discussing what's meaningful for our industry today and more importantly for the future. So I am, you know, I saw the panel, the people that have been here, and I've been sharing stories with colleagues, and everyone tells me that they've had a fantastic time here in Abu Dhabi. And of course, with the conference you have hosted.

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