Etihad Airways closed September with 1.9 million passengers—up 21 percent year-on-year—and an average load factor of 89 percent, the airline revealed in a traffic update published 27 October. The carrier has now transported 16.1 million travellers in the first nine months of 2025, already surpassing its full-year 2024 total.
The rebound is being driven by capacity increases on North American and Asian trunk routes, a new A380 deployment to Toronto and additional narrow-body frequencies across the GCC. For mobility professionals, higher seat availability is easing the search for economy-class fares during peak assignment rotations, while Etihad’s expanding premium-cabin inventory is improving short-notice business-trip options.
Strong demand has also accelerated the airline’s fleet expansion; Etihad now operates 115 aircraft and will take delivery of ten more A321neos before year-end. The network has grown to 82 passenger destinations, with seven more—Almaty, Bucharest, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku, Tashkent and Medina—scheduled to launch by March 2026. This diversification offers new one-stop routings for UAE-based companies sending staff to secondary Eurasian markets, potentially reducing travel costs compared with through-ticketing on European carriers.
Etihad’s CEO Antonoaldo Neves said the figures ‘underline Abu Dhabi’s emergence as a preferred transfer hub,’ citing the airport’s new Terminal A and streamlined biometric border-control process. Travel-management companies expect sustained fare competition on core long-haul corridors as Etihad seeks to maintain momentum into the winter season.
The rebound is being driven by capacity increases on North American and Asian trunk routes, a new A380 deployment to Toronto and additional narrow-body frequencies across the GCC. For mobility professionals, higher seat availability is easing the search for economy-class fares during peak assignment rotations, while Etihad’s expanding premium-cabin inventory is improving short-notice business-trip options.
Strong demand has also accelerated the airline’s fleet expansion; Etihad now operates 115 aircraft and will take delivery of ten more A321neos before year-end. The network has grown to 82 passenger destinations, with seven more—Almaty, Bucharest, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Baku, Tashkent and Medina—scheduled to launch by March 2026. This diversification offers new one-stop routings for UAE-based companies sending staff to secondary Eurasian markets, potentially reducing travel costs compared with through-ticketing on European carriers.
Etihad’s CEO Antonoaldo Neves said the figures ‘underline Abu Dhabi’s emergence as a preferred transfer hub,’ citing the airport’s new Terminal A and streamlined biometric border-control process. Travel-management companies expect sustained fare competition on core long-haul corridors as Etihad seeks to maintain momentum into the winter season.
