(TAN): Etihad Airways has announced its business results for 2021, recording a strong recovery in passenger operations along with a significant improvement in financial performance, posting a loss of USD 476 million for 2021, significantly less than the USD 1.7 billion in 2020.
The airline carried 3.5 million passengers in 2021, with an average seat load factor of 39.6%. Passenger loads doubled in the second half of the year, reaching 70.1% in December as travel demand peaked during the winter holiday period. The airline recorded a particularly strong surge in passenger volumes in Q4 following the September relaxation of mandatory quarantine periods in Abu Dhabi.
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Etihad Airways posted passenger revenues of USD 1.07 billion in 2021, down by 14% YoY. While ongoing travel restrictions and new variants of the virus dampened demand, the airline saw passenger revenues bounce back in the last quarter of the year, recovering to 50% of 2019 levels in December.
Etihad Group CEO Tony Douglas said: “In another year of global uncertainty, Etihad Airways has continued to move forward, strengthen its business, and build on its world-class travel proposition…. Despite the slowdown caused by omicron, we are confident that the spring and summer season will continue to see a resurgence in travel as more people return to the skies.”
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Overall, Etihad recorded a core operating loss of USD 476 million for fiscal year 2021, representing a 72% improvement compared to 2020 (USD 1.70 billion) and a 41% improvement against pre-pandemic results in 2019 (USD 802 million). EBITDA improved by more than USD 1 billion, turning to positive USD 408 million from a negative USD 651 million in 2020.
