I’ve gone through more than a few airlines financial recaps for Q2 and H1. In most cases the underlying trend I could notice was revenue up but after-tax profits down. This has been the case with most American and European carriers. However, this doesn’t seem to apply to Etihad Airways and its 2024 H1 earnings.
Etihad 2024 H1 Earnings Up Profits Too
While many carriers around the world are seeing their revenue rise but profits shrink, due to rising costs, Etihad airways doesn’t seem to be suffering of the same problems. The Abu Dhabi based airline shared its first semester earnings this week that show both figures rising in the first half of 2024.
Revenue from all operations grew by 21% over the same period of last year. This year’s revenue was 3.2 billion dollars while last year’s H1 didn’t go above 2.6 billion dollars. Contrary to what happened to many other airline profits also grew from 157 million dollars in 2023’s H1 to 232 million dollars in 2024’s. That is a massive 48% jump forward.

How Did Etihad Increase Profits by Such a Margin?
We don’t really have many details from the airline about that, the press release merely stated that it was achieved by increasing efficiencies. Now what that means, translated into simpler terms is a couple of things.
First, it replaced ageing and inefficient planes with new generation highly efficient ones. For instance, the carrier introduced more highly fuel efficient A321neo in its fleet. Boeing 787s have become the go to plane for long-haul services. Long gone are the days of Etihad using fuel guzzling A340s.
Another way of increasing efficiencies is to streamline the fleet and get rid of unnecessary staff redundancies. By streamlining the fleet, you can get your spare parts in larger bulks, therefore, at a cheaper price. While excess staff can just cost you money if they don’t bring an added value to the business.
I’m quite sure most of the efficiencies Etihad achieved are fleet related though.
Positive Notes on the Operational Figures Too
Inevitably the operational figures also follow the same trajectory as the financial results. The airline overall grew in 2024’s first six months ove the same period of 2023.
Etihad increased its ASK (Available Seat per Kilometre) by quite a bit. The indicator went up from 33.4 billion in 2023 H1 to 44.3 in 2024, a 33% increase. However, passengers transported also increased and, most importantly, they increased at a faster rate than the seat availability. Specifically, passengers increased from 6.3 million to 8.7 million, a 38% increase.
That means the airline was much more efficient and capable in filling its planes up which in turn increases revenue and finally profits.
Etihad can also leverage to attract passengers a much nicer new terminal. All operations have in fact moved to the new Terminal A with its breathtaking architecture and fantastic facilities.