ABU DHABI, UAE, 1 August 2022: Etihad Airways announced its financial and operating results for the first half of 2022 last week, posting a record-breaking core operating profit of USD296 million (H1 2021: USD392 million loss).
This result was achieved despite fuel costs increasing by almost 60% compared to the same period last year.
Etihad carried 4.02 million passengers in H1 2022, over 3 million more than last year (H1 2021: 980,000), with an average seat load factor of 75%. Passenger loads increased consistently over the first six months, rising by 21.9 percentage points as travel demand recovered. The airline saw a strong boost in passenger volumes in February as Abu Dhabi further relaxed pandemic-related restrictions.
Network capacity came in at 24 billion ASKs for H1 2022, growing by 46% compared to last year (H1 2021: 16.4 billion), as the airline connected Abu Dhabi to 71 passenger and cargo destinations across 45 countries. The first half of the year saw Etihad launch five summer services, including new seasonal routes to Heraklion on the island of Crete and the French city of Nice.
Financial and loyalty highlights
Etihad’s passenger revenues tripled in the first six months, climbing to USD1.25 billion (H1 2021: USD320 million) as more business and leisure travellers returned to the air. This was supported by more countries across Etihad’s network relaxing their Covid-related travel restrictions.
As a result of a constant focus on cost containment, fixed overhead and finance costs decreased in H1 2022, falling by 9% (or USD29 million) and 13% (or USD22 million), respectively.
Etihad Guest, the airline’s award-winning loyalty programme, delivered a record of new member acquisitions in June 2022, increasing to 7.95 million members globally. Flight redemptions increased 15% in H1 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, with over 737,000 flights taken and member engagement levels translated into record card spends across the programme’s portfolio of UAE banks, supported by a new partnership with Emirates NBD.
Key figures
| H1 2022 | H1 2021 | |
| Passenger revenue (US$ billion) | 1.25 | 0.32 |
| Cargo revenue (US$ billion) | 0.80 | 0.76 |
| Operating revenue (US$ billion) | 2.29 | 1.23 |
| EBITDA (US$ billion) | 0.69 | 0.06 |
| Core operating result (US$ billion) | 0.30 | (0.39) |
| Total passengers (million) | 4.02 | 0.98 |
| Available seat kilometres (billion) | 24.00 | 16.43 |
| Seat load factor (%) | 74.98% | 24.89% |
| Number of operating aircraft | 71 | 64 |
| Cargo tonnage (leg tonnes ‘000) | 295.02 | 365.48 |
