Etihad Airways On Track for 2012 Profit

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways is on track to be back in the black in 2012 despite the IATA warnings of a tough year ahead - taken from Reuters:

 Chief Executive James Hogan said the privately run company's wide geographic focus and operational efficiencies as a new airline would put it into the black in 2012 despite industry body IATA warning of waning consumer confidence, sluggish international trade and high fuel prices.

"We'll break even this year, and then we'll move into profitability," Hogan told Reuters on Saturday.

"For airlines it's tough, but we're not a transatlantic carrier so probably a lot of the negative numbers that are commentated on by IATA...(have) such a high weighting on transatlantic," he said.

 Etihad is comtinuing to grow its reach with an influx of new planes over the next few years, tripling its staff, as well as expanding the list of destinations it flies to. They have reported a 39 per cent increase in third quarter revenues as its network and passenger numbers continued to grow.

Etihad is not a transatlantic carrierwhich is why Chief Executive James Hogan believes they can buck the trend the IATA is forecasting. Based in Abu Dhabi, Etihad fly to Tokyo, Johannesburg, Milan, New Delhi etc with new routes being continually added.

With their latest TTG Travel Award for Airline of the year, its no surprise that passengers keep flooding through their gates.