In his speech – entitled “A new way of doing things: Together” –Hogan discussed the airline’s strategy for growth and the necessity of partnerships within the air travel industry.
“Our partnership here goes beyond our flight operations, with many of our company’s most important strategic partners being American companies. We currently operate 14 Boeing aircraft but have another 51 on order, including 41 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. With our equity partners, we will be operating the largest fleet of Dreamliners anywhere in the world,” Hogan said, while explaining Etihad Airways’ services to the US, which include New York, Chicago and the launch of flights to Washington, D.C. on March 31, 2013.
Codeshare agreements, such as the one Etihad Airways has held with American Airlines since 2009, have seen the airline’s network expand rapidly in recent years.
“From very early on, we recognised we needed to work with other airlines if we were to achieve scale and build our competitive position.
“Today, we have codeshares in place with 41 partners, expanding our network of destinations to 327 major cities – more than any other Middle Eastern airline. In building those partnerships, we’ve taken a deliberately wide-ranging approach, working with airlines from all markets and – perhaps most importantly – from across all of the major alliances.
“Those codeshares have played an important role in the growth of our business, feeding passengers into our global network and delivering a constant and growing revenue stream for the business.”
Hogan detailed how this approach was taken further to include equity stakes in airberlin, Air Seychelles, Virgin Australia and Aer Lingus.
“Our equity stakes are not about seeking control; they are about cementing partnership – partnership that will deliver growth in a constrained and challenged global landscape. They are about us putting skin in the game, betting on the success of our commercial relationships. This year, those partnerships will deliver something in the region of 20 per cent of our total revenues.
“So, in our new model, we have taken what we believe is the smart approach to work around the limitations of the global aviation sector.”