As part of badly-needed cost-cutting efforts, Abu Dhabi's beleaguered Etihad Airways announced on Tuesday that it would sell 38 commercial jets to a holdings and investment company in a deal worth $1 billion.
The United Arab Emirates' national carrier disclosed that it would sell 22 Airbus A330s and 16 Boeing 777-300ER passenger jets to KKR and leasing company Altavair AirFinance. The Boeing 777-300ERs, KKR stated, will be leased back to the seller "upon purchase in early 2020," while the Airbus A330s will be delivered to international customers.
The decision to sell is part of Etihad's third year of "transformation program," airline officials said. "The deal offers Etihad the flexibility while making sure we stand by our sales targets and keep a fleet of the most technologically advanced planes," Etihad said in a statement.
As early as 2016, Etihad has suffered approximately $4.7 billion in operational losses as the airline's program of compulsively acquiring shares in airline companis -- from Australia to Europe to go head to head against close rival Emirates and Qatar Airways -- had put Etihad Airways in a very vulnerable spot. The Abu Dhabi airliner shed $1.3 billion in 2018 and has yet to report results for 2019.
Since then, Etihad has ventured on a cost-cutting measure and just recently said it would reconfigure planned aircraft acquisitions from Boeing and Airbus. Etihad posted $5.86 billion in sales in 2018, down from $6 billion the previous year. It flew 17.9 million passengers in 2019, down from 18.5 million the year before that.
Abu Dhabi's top officials unveiled Etihad in 2003 to compete with the well-grounded state-controlled Emirates of Dubai. In 2018, Etihad started loaning pilots to Emirates under a new agreement.
Both Etihad and Emirates have seen business jeopardized by US President Donald Trump's travel restrictions that heavily impacted Muslim-majority regions. The two airline companies are state-owned in the UAE, an association of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula. On Monday, UAE civil aviation officials stopped all flights to China, except for those going to Beijing.
Meanwhile, Etihad Airways has announced that it will hike frequencies on its popular Abu Dhabi to Athens route during the busy summer peak seasons.
In a press statement released by Etihad on Wednesday, the additional overnight route will be carried out between July 8 and August 31 via an Airbus A320 configured with 8 seats in Business and 150 seats in Economy.
The additional frequency will complement the daily two-class Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner daytime flight between the two capitals.
