Etihad Airways to cut jobs

East carriers which have shaken up the global aviation business over the past decade, is to lay off some staff, in the latest sign of difficulty among the region’s airlines. According to a spokesperson for the airline, it is embarking on a restructuring exercise to cut costs and improve productivity “against a backdrop of weakened global economic conditions”. The airline hasn’t said how many jobs will go, but it has described it as “a measured reduction of headcount in some parts of the business.”
The most recent figures from the airline show a slight reduction in the number of destinations it flies to, from 116 at the end of last year to 112 in October this year. Growth in its fleet has almost stalled in 2016, with the number of planes rising by just one over the first ten months of the year to 122. The announcement of job cuts comes in the wake of falling passenger numbers at Eithad’s Abu Dhabi base. Other warning signs in recent weeks have included huge losses announced by its Dubai-based rival Emirates.
What is more, all the Gulf airlines face the prospect of losing out on revenues from some key long-haul markets in the coming years, after a recent announcement from Qantas that, from March 2018, it will fly directly between Perth and London– a route that until now has involved a stop-over along the way, typically in Singapore, Hong Kong or one of the Gulf hubs. It is a potentially concerning development for the Gulf carriers, whose business is based on acting as a hub to connect traffic between multiple points in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and, to a lesser extent, the Americas.
Etihad has pursued a different strategy to its main rivals at Emirates and Qatar Airways, steadily expanding its own route network but also buying minority stakes in struggling airlines around the world which can be used to feed traffic on to its own planes. It now has stakes in Air Berlin, Italy’s Alitalia, Jet Airways of India, Air Seychelles, Air Serbia and Virgin Australia as well as the Swiss-based Etihad Regional.