Etihad passenger numbers up 35% year-on-year

Passenger numbers on Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways have increased 35 per cent year-on-year to reach 1,463,771 in January 2024.

For the month of January 2023, the airline recorded 1,082,828 passengers.

The uptick in passenger numbers comes after the Covid-19 pandemic knocked air travel across the globe from 2020 to 2022.

“We are still below our pre-COVID level but we are continuing to grow towards that. By 2030, we will have more than 160 aircraft. We aim to double our network to over 125 destinations and triple our customers to more than 33 million each year,” a spokesperson from Etihad Airways told Gulf Business.

Amid its growth, the airline has also ramped up the number of planes in its fleet from 71 in January 2023 to 85 in January 2024. 

A year ago, the airline was travelling to 64 destinations across the globe. Today, it is reaching 69 destinations.

“Etihad has an ambitious growth strategy and these figures are in line with that plan,” the spokesperson said.

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In a statement, the company further said that it is offering almost 27 per cent more weekly departures for the summer of 24 compared to last summer.

Earlier this year, the airline also added Kozhikode (CCJ) and Thiruvananthapuram (TRV) in the Kerala region of India to its destination listing, taking the number of Indian gateways to 10.