It’s All About Relationships
Etihad Airways welcomed a group of Canada’s top travel agents, tour operators and airline officials to a special “Thank You” event in Toronto on April 16.
Hosted by Sportsnet’s Evanka Osmak — not a surprising choice, considering Etihad has taken a sponsorship role in a number of major sports, most recently announcing a sponsorship partnership with Major League Soccer — the evening affair at Toronto’s Four Season’s hotel was all about the importance of relationships.
In fact, Etihad’s general manager here in Canada, James Harrison told the gathering that in the eight years the carrier has been operating from Canada, it has been able to continue growing its business here because of its partnerships with the travel trade.
James Mueller, SVP Global Sales for Etihad, noted that since its launch in Canada, the airline has carried 750,000 passengers, observing, “We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but we’re also excited about the future.”
Considering that Etihad has just turned in some sizzling results for the first quarter of 2014, the future certainly does look bright.
The carrier announced total revenues of US$1.4 billion during the three-month period, marking a year-on-year increase of 27%. And it carried a total of 3.2 million passengers during that time, which is a gain of 14% over the 2.8 million passengers carried during the same period last year.
Commenting on the results, Etihad’s president and CEO, James Hogan observed “Although the global airline industry has faced challenges such as higher-than-expected fuel prices and fierce competition in key international markets during the first quarter of 2014, we have continued to outperform the passenger and cargo markets, and raise the bar even further for Etihad Airways.”
And Hogan continued, “Our strong performance highlights the continued success of Etihad Airways’ strategic master plan, which focuses on the three fundamental pillars of organic network growth, codeshare partnerships and minority equity investments in other airlines around the world. This unique strategy, and the investments we have made in product, service and infrastructure, means that Etihad Airways is positioned strongly for top-line growth and bottom-line delivery in 2014.”
Pictured (l-r) are Etihad’s general manager Canada, James Harrison; its SVP global sales, James Mueller; and its senior vice-president Americas, Geert W. Boven.
