Etihad Airways has revealed it is to invest almost $1 billion in a refurbishment program that will see new cabin interiors fitted to its older Boeing 777 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft fleet. The move comes as the carrier said it expects to exceed the annual profits it achieved in 2023 in the current financial year.
Speaking with The National, the Abu Dhabi-based carrier’s CEO Antonoaldo Neves said that the retrofit program was additional to a broader $7 billion investment program that is planned to be injected across the airline’s operations by 2030. The news comes after the carrier posted a 66% increase in profits for the first nine months of 2024 over the same period in 2023, as reported by AeroTime here.
Neves advised that the retrofitting of older Boeing 777-300ERs and 787-8s is due to start in 2026. This date marks the earliest point that the airline can take delivery of new interiors from manufacturers. The retrofit program is being rolled out to deal with ongoing delays to new aircraft deliveries from both Airbus and Boeing who themselves are struggling with supply chain bottlenecks.
According to ch-aviation, the airline currently operates nine 777-300ERs, 33 787-9s, and 10 787-10s. It has a further 28 787s on order plus 25 777X series aircraft, a model which is yet to be certified.
The order for the 777X aircraft was placed with Boeing in November 2013, However, the aircraft’s entry into service has been delayed until 2026, a delay of six years from the point at which the planes were originally ordered. Although this news came as a major setback to Etihad, the CEO said that the carrier retains the right to convert its 777X orders to more 787s instead, allowing it some flexibility in its future fleet plans.
Neves added that the 777X does not currently feature in its five-year plan. “We continue to evaluate our fleet requirements and will make decisions that best align with our operational needs and market conditions,” he said.
The airline is aiming to maintain a degree of uniformity across its widebody fleet, except for its fleet of Airbus A380s which feature ‘The Residence’ first class suites onboard. The retrofit program will include new business class seats, updated IFE systems, and high-speed internet, creating a seamless experience across its fleets including the new Airbus A350-1000.
“We’re going to retrofit even the planes that don’t need a retrofit, but we believe it’s important for the airline to have consistency across the fleet,” Neves added.
Ongoing expansion plans
Etihad is continuing to expand and is currently aiming to triple annual passenger numbers to 33 million and double the size of its fleet to 150 aircraft by 2030. Additionally, the airline is also preparing for a potential listing which would be a first for a major Gulf airline.
The carrier is also planning to add around 10 new destinations each year, although Neves said that the airline is “done in terms of its aircraft needs” until 2030.
“We don’t need incremental planes until 2030 because we spent a lot of time last year trying to make sure we get those planes. We have left inside our fleet plan some flexibility if there’s a need to cut capacity because we have some planes that will come off lease, but we’re operating on the other side of that.”
“Right now, we’re trying to identify, if we want to go beyond doubling capacity in 2028, 2029, 2030, how would we do that? But it’s just an exercise. It’s our obligation to constantly analyze what we have in the market. Beyond 2030, we will, of course, need planes” but the airline will not make large orders,” he said.
“We’re going to approach plane orders in a very conservative and agile way. I’m not going to come to the market and put a 100-plane order, I don’t think that’s useful actually,” Neves added. “Any potential orders in the future would be in smaller clusters of five to 10 planes.”
“We have to plan for 2030 and beyond, but we’re going to do that in a measured way and constantly,” he continued. “If I do five planes every year, then in five years it will be 25 planes.”
Etihad’s current order book includes 20 Boeing 787-10s and eight Boeing 787-9s, 17 Boeing 777-9s and eight Boeing 777-8s, 15 Airbus A350-1000s and seven A350 freighters, plus 21 Airbus A320/321neo narrowbody jets. In October 2024, the carrier announced the launch of flights to Al Alamein in Egypt and has already hinted at a large announcement on November 25, 2024, regarding up to 10 new routes to be added in the coming months.