Every so often, an airline releases a financial update that feels less like a set of numbers and more like a pointed reminder of where the centre of gravity in global aviation is quietly shifting. Etihad Airways has just delivered one of those moments.
Abu Dhabi’s flag carrier, long dismissed by some as the quieter sibling in the Gulf trio, has reported a nine-month profit that would have seemed implausible a decade ago, if not slightly indecent during the industry’s long, slow pandemic hangover. Yet here we are: AED 1.7 billion in profit after tax, a 26 per cent rise, and the airline’s strongest performance in its 21-year history.
Airlines rarely enjoy tidy story arcs. Etihad, once criticised for its over-ambitious global partnerships and patchwork investments, now finds itself in an unusual position: the disciplined one in the family. Profit margins, once wispy things that came and went with the oil price, have settled at 8%, a figure that suggests someone in the building has rediscovered the fine art of saying “no”.
But the more telling part of this story is not the profit itself. It’s the momentum behind it.
Passengers Return – and Then Some
Etihad’s aircraft have been fuller this year than in any comparable period in the airline’s history. Sixteen-point-one million passengers travelled with the airline in the first nine months of 2025, up 18% year-on-year. The load factor hit 88%, a number that warms the heart of any airline CFO because it means seats are not just being flown; they are being sold.
The airline expanded its capacity by 17 per cent, which is significant in its own right. What’s more interesting is that demand kept up with it. In an industry where supply often outruns appetite, Etihad managed to strike that luckiest of combinations: more seats, more bums in them, and more revenue to show for it.
Passenger revenue climbed 20% to AED 18.2 billion, while cargo, always the steady, uncomplaining contributor, grew 8% to AED 3.2 billion. Together, they lifted total revenue to AED 21.7 billion.
Chief executive Antonoaldo Neves, who has become known for delivering numbers with the energy of someone who hasn’t slept since 2018, was understandably buoyant.
“Etihad’s performance this year has set a new benchmark, outpacing the market and driving nearly half of the UAE’s total passenger growth,” he said.
“It’s a clear validation of our strategy, the strength of our team, and the appeal of Abu Dhabi as a world-class destination.”
Neves has a point. Abu Dhabi has been investing heavily to cement itself as a global crossroads, and Etihad’s network is beginning to feel like a well-considered extension of that plan rather than a speculative grab for dots on a map.
A Fleet Growing in All Directions
A key driver behind the airline’s surge has been the sudden, rather muscular expansion of its fleet. Etihad ended September with 115 aircraft, up from 96 a year earlier. Nineteen new arrivals in 12 months would be impressive for any airline; nine arriving in a single quarter suggests someone in operations has been living on coffee and spreadsheets.
Among the new additions:
-
Three Airbus A321LRs,
-
Three Boeing 787 Dreamliners,
-
Two Airbus A350s,
-
And one lonely but hardworking A320.
The standout, of course, is the A321LR — a narrow-body with delusions of grandeur. Etihad has used it to introduce something that borders on audacity: First Class suites on a single-aisle jet. Business Class is arranged in a 1-1 layout, an indulgence usually reserved for wide-bodies crossing oceans, not hopping around the region. The inaugural service to Phuket on 1 August was less a launch and more a declaration that comfort and common sense need no longer be enemies.
Passengers noticed. Etihad’s Net Promoter Score, that increasingly influential corporate mood thermometer, hit record highs in 2025, especially among premium travellers. Even the grizzled frequent flyers, who usually treat airlines the way Australians treat politicians (with polite suspicion), have been unusually generous.
Network Expansion Without the Fever Dream
One of the criticisms levelled at Gulf carriers during their growth spurts of the 2010s was that they sometimes expanded routes with the enthusiasm of someone collecting football cards. Etihad seems to have learned from those years.
The airline now serves 91 destinations, with more than 100 in the pipeline. But this time, additions have been incremental, targeted and mercifully free of the “global domination by Thursday” mood that marked earlier eras.
New flights launched this year include Atlanta and Al Alamein, while fresh services to Salalah, Kazan and Krakow are on the way. Europe, a key battleground for Gulf carriers, received more than 500,000 additional Etihad seats in 2025 alone.
In total, 31 new destinations have been launched or announced in the past 12 months. That sounds extravagant, but in practice, it appears less like empire-building and more like a carefully plotted push to position Abu Dhabi as a truly global hub.
And, for the first time, Etihad carried 20 million passengers over a rolling 12-month period, passing a symbolic milestone that places it firmly in the “major global airline” category.
The Numbers Behind the Curtain
Financially, the airline has settled into a rhythm that suggests the commercial engine is not merely revived but running at a comfortable hum. EBITDA rose 27 per cent to AED 4.3 billion, while operating cash flow climbed to nearly AED 6 billion, a 40 per cent jump.
Those figures matter because they do not rely solely on capacity expansion or fare inflation. They reflect efficiency — a word that historically caused Etihad executives to wince.
The airline now appears to generate cash comfortably enough to avoid the sort of dramatic restructuring conversations that once hung over its future like a desert sandstorm. Stability, in aviation, is underrated as a competitive advantage.
People, Partnerships and the Long Game
Etihad’s growth has coincided with an equally significant expansion of human life. More than 2,600 new employees have joined the airline this year including 200 pilots and roughly 1,500 cabin crew. Over 1,500 staff received promotions, suggesting the company is building culture rather than simply capacity.
Partnerships have been refreshed, too. A loyalty deal with Vietnam Airlines should help funnel more travellers through Asia, while a strengthened cargo pact with Atlas Air broadens the airline’s reach in freight.
Perhaps the most telling sign of Etihad’s maturity is the absence of drama. No grandiose investment sprees. No sprawling alliance experiments. Just a methodical build-out of its strengths.
The Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) named Etihad a Five-Star Global Airline for 2026, the kind of accolade that used to come sporadically. Now it feels like part of the air the airline breathes.
A Gulf Carrier With Its Own Identity at Last
Etihad’s 2025 performance raises an intriguing prospect: the airline may finally have outgrown the shadow of Emirates and Qatar Airways. It no longer appears to be chasing anyone. It is simply becoming a full-service global carrier with a distinctly Abu Dhabi footprint: quieter, more curated, and less prone to theatrics.
Will challenges emerge? Of course. Fuel prices remain unpredictable, and geopolitics has a habit of throwing spanners into even the best-oiled aviation engines. But Etihad enters the final quarter of the year with something rarer than strong results: credibility.
Neves summed it up neatly:
“Our guests’ trust and enthusiasm inspire us to deliver extraordinary experiences every day.”
It’s the sort of line CEO’s are paid to recite. But after a year like this, it lands with a surprising ring of truth.
