Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways posts third consecutive annual loss in 2018

Etihad Airways on Thursday reported its third consecutive annual loss despite finding cost savings of nearly half a billion dollars as it cut its workforce and fleet.

The Abu Dhabi state-owned airline blamed challenging market conditions including higher fuel prices for a $1.28bn loss in 2018, narrower than the $1.58bn it lost in 2017.

Etihad, which has trimmed its ambitions to be a major intercontinental airline to focus on point-to-point flights, has made losses of $4.75bn  since 2016.

Revenue fell nearly 4 per cent to $5.86bn last year, compared with the $6.1bn it reported for 2017.

The airline launched a five-year turnaround strategy in 2017, the year current chief executive, Tony Douglas, was hired.

“In 2018, we continued to forge ahead with our transformation journey by streamlining our cost base, improving our cash flow and strengthening our balance sheet,” Douglas, said in a statement.

Etihad said it slashed costs by $416m in 2018, or 5.5 per cent, as it cut its workforce by 5 per cent to 21,855.

The number of passengers carried fell by 4.3 per cent to 17.8 million as it cut the number of aircraft in its fleet by nine and stopped flying to several routes it said were unprofitable.

Etihad has been rethinking its business since 2016 after piling billions of dollars into a failed strategy of buying minority stakes in other airlines.

Dozens of aircraft orders with Airbus and Boeing worth billions of dollars have since been cancel led.