Etihad Airways announced deals to add 32 Airbus wide-body passenger planes and freighters to its fleet, to extend its long-haul network and meet its capacity growth target of an average 15 per cent per year until 2030.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline has signed a purchase agreement with Airbus for six A330 Neo aircraft, which are scheduled for delivery between 2028 and 2029.
Etihad also announced on the second day of the Dubai Airshow on Tuesday that it has signed a leasing agreement with Dublin-based Avolon, the world's second-largest aircraft lessor, for nine A330-900s that will start arriving from 2027.
An additional seven A350-1000s rounded off its agreement with Airbus for passenger planes, in an endorsement of the model's performance in the hot and dusty climate of the Gulf. It also ordered 10 A350 freighters.
“The A350-1000 is a very, very important plane for Etihad because of the payload and range it gives to Etihad to fly ultra long-haul,” Etihad chief executive Antonoaldo Neves told The National. “This is a plane that can fly to the US or Australia with almost no payload limitations.”
Etihad will use the aircraft not just on ultra-long haul destinations such as Canada, but also “very dense” routes such as slots-constrained Amsterdam, he said.
Etihad Airways already operates the A350-1000 in its fleet and is topping up its order with more of the wide-body plane.
This endorsement is in contrast with its Dubai-based neighbour Emirates, which has so far shunned the plane, criticising the durability of its Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines in the hot and harsh operating conditions of the Gulf. Rolls-Royce is the only engine supplier for that model.
While Etihad acknowledges that the engines have to go to repair shop visits “more often than they should” after doing just 900 cycles to 1,000 cycles, the airline has reached a solution to the issue.
“We are really happy with the performance of the plane,” he said. “Many people talk about the engine challenges. But we have an agreement with Rolls-Royce in terms of spare-engine ratio availability.”
Spare-engine ratio refers to how many spares an airline needs for a given number of in-service engines. “The spare-engine ratio is really good,” Mr Neves said. “I'm covered and whenever I need to change the engine, then I change the engine.
“The A350-1000 today has the highest utilisation in the fleet. The plane is flying a lot.”
Mr Neves declined to provide the value of the plane deals outlined on Tuesday, but said the airline is investing $10 billion on new planes over the next five years.
Etihad plans to have 200 planes and carry 37 million passengers a year by 2030, Mr Neves said at a press conference on Tuesday. This is up from a previous target of 160 aircraft and 30 million annual passengers.
Orders driven by slots availability
The new agreements announced on Tuesday have also been driven by their availability as Etihad needs them to grow its operations over the next three years.
The A330 Neo, for example is comparable to the Boeing 787-10, but slots for the Airbus plane were more readily available in that time frame.
“We want to grow in 2027, 2028 and 2029 more than we were planning to. I could not get other planes … I could not get 787s by 2029, so I had to take those planes also because of availability,” Mr Neves said.
The A330 Neo is a “very good aircraft” for Etihad to fly to destinations in Southeast Asia and Europe.
“The A330-900 is more for places that are not slot-constrained and where I want to have the range and efficiency of the A330 Neo, which is an aereoplane that is delivering great results,” Mr Neves said.
On the other hand, the A350 freighter will bring an “ultra-high” capacity to the fleet. In the first nine months of 2025, Etihad's cargo revenue rose by 8 per cent annually to Dh3.2 billion ($871 million) driven by increased capacity and volumes.
Asked if he expects deliveries of the new planes to be late, amid an industry-wide delay in handovers by both Boeing and Airbus, he said: “They're going to be late a little bit here and there. We bake into our plan some delay. You have to.”
The airline is growing at a fast pace, with the number of new destinations launched or announced over the past 12 months at 31. It is also investing heavily in premium offerings with the launch of its new Airbus A321LR, a narrow-body aircraft that the airline says will deliver the same standard of luxury as a wide-body.
Next year, Etihad expects to become a $9 billion revenue airline, carrying about 25 million passengers, Mr Neves said. That compares to $6.9 billion in revenue and passenger volumes of 18.5 million last year.
Viasat for high-speed Wi-Fi
Etihad is also ready to announce an agreement with US satellite giant Viasat for ultra high-speed Wi-Fi on-board its entire fleet, Mr Neves said. “Over the past year, Viasat has developed a low-orbit solution that is as good, if not better, than Starlink,” he said.
Until that low-orbit connectivity solution is available, Etihad in the short-term will add Wi-Fi to its narrow-body aircraft next year using Viasat services.
“Viasat is going to progressively upgrade, until the end of 2027, the network to be a low-orbit network that provides much better speeds,” Mr Neves said.
Emirates said on Monday that it will install SpaceX's Starlink on its entire fleet, starting this month, upgrading its wide-body jets with superfast free on-board Wi-Fi in all cabins and handing a major contract to Elon Musk's company.
Etihad's Wi-Fi upgrades come amid plans for a $1 billion retrofit programme of up to 60 of its older Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft.
The refurbishment work will begin in the fourth quarter of 2027, but work has already start on seat selection and cabin designs, Mr Neves said.
