Etihad Plans to Resume Flight Operations

Saturday 18th of April 2020

Etihad Plans to Resume Flight Operations

On 16th April, Etihad announced that it plans to resume some regular passenger services from 1st May until 30th June, with the aim of gradually returning to a fuller schedule. “We remain cautiously optimistic and will push ahead with our plans to resume normal flying, while striving to better serve and support our customers and our employees,” said Tony Douglas, group CEO, Etihad Aviation Group.

Following a government directive, all scheduled passenger flights in and out of the UAE were suspended on 25th March. Since then, Etihad has operated 500 special repatriation and freighter flights but these have only carried outbound passengers and brought back UAE citizens and goods. Around 80% of Etihad’s fleet remains grounded.

Further, Etihad’s engineering division is said to be undergoing what the airline says is the “biggest aircraft maintenance program in its history.” Etihad Engineering, the group’s Engineering Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) division, is performing maintenance work on 96 passenger aircraft including 29 Airbus A320 and A321s, 10 Airbus A380s, 38 Boeing 787s, and 19 Boeing 777-300ERs.