Etihad Airways said on Thursday that it plans to restart regularly scheduled passenger flights from May 1 after the United Arab Emirates lifts a current travel ban. Etihad and all other airlines in the UAE, including Emirates, flydubai and Air Arabia have been largely grounded since March 24 after the authorities grounded flights in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.
While Etihad has been granted special permission to operate a limited schedule of repatriation flights from its base in Abu Dhabi, the airline is only allowed to carry outbound passengers who were stranded in the UAE after the travel ban was imposed. Emirati citizens are also allowed to fly to Abu Dhabi for free on return flights.
So far, 600 Emirati citizens have returned to the UAE on one of the 500 special passenger, belly-hold freight and cargo flights operated worldwide. Repatriation flights have been operated to Brussels, Dublin, London Heathrow, Tokyo Narita and Zurich since the start of this week. Previous repatriation services have operated to Amsterdam, Jakarta, Singapore, Seoul, Manila and Melbourne.
“Subject to UAE government-imposed travel restrictions being lifted on passenger travel, Etihad plans to operate a reduced network of scheduled passenger services from 1 May to 30 June, with the aim of gradually returning to a fuller schedule as and when the global situation improves,” the airline said in a statement on Thursday.
Tony Douglas, the chief executive of Etihad said the airline would “assume a ‘business as usual’ approach” to restarting normal passenger operations, initially on a limited number of routes. While Douglas admitted that it was “difficult to predict” what would happen to the aviation industry month to month, he said the “unwavering support of our shareholder, has left us in a relatively strong position to withstand any instability.”
Etihad is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi and it’s likely that Douglas is referring to a state-backed bailout that will keep the airline afloat throughout the pandemic.
At present, Etihad is using just 22 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and 777-300 aircraft but has five more aircraft ready to be put back into the operational rotation as more destinations and frequencies come online.
Douglas said the airline had been using the downtime to implement “network-wide route and fleet efficiencies while conducting an extensive brand study and trialling new service concepts in our guest experience proposition.” In the last few years, Etihad has introduced a buy-on-board concept and ripped out seatback TV screens on some shorthaul aircraft as part of a turnaround effort for the loss-making carrier.
Previously announced maintenance work on the grounded fleet continues with 96 aircraft undergoing some form of work during the flight ban.
