Business Travel News
Business Travel News
  • SECTIONS
    • Transportation
    • Lodging
    • Payment & Expense
    • Technology
    • Distribution
    • Meetings
    • Global
    • Management
    • Travel Procurement
    • Voices
    • Recent Issues
  • EXPERT Q&A
    • VIEW ALL INTERVIEWS
  • RESEARCH
    • Corporate Travel 100
    • Corporate Travel Index
    • Expense Manager Report
    • Small & Midsize Enterprise
    • Salary Survey
    • Strategic Meetings Report
    • VIEW ALL
  • WEBINARS
    • View All Webinars
  • EVENTS
    • Webinars
    • Business Travel Intelligence Summit
    • Business Travel Lodging Summit
    • Business Travel Show
    • Business Travel Tech Talk
    • Business Travel Trends Forecasts
    • Entertainment Travel Summit
    • Global Travel Risk Summit
    • Government Travel Summit
    • Innovate
    • Strategic Meetings Summit
    • Sustainable Business Travel Summit
    • VIEW ALL EVENTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Business Travel Buyer's Handbook
    • Business Travel Buyer's Techbook
    • Corporate Travel Index Calculator
    • Data Sources: The Reference Guide
    • White Papers & Case Studies
    • Influencers
    • Webinars
    • Videos
    • Hotel Search
  • SECTIONS
    • Transportation
    • Lodging
    • Payment & Expense
    • Technology
    • Distribution
    • Meetings
    • Global
    • Management
    • Travel Procurement
    • Voices
    • Recent Issues
  • EXPERT Q&A
    • VIEW ALL INTERVIEWS
  • RESEARCH
    • Corporate Travel 100
    • Corporate Travel Index
    • Expense Manager Report
    • Small & Midsize Enterprise
    • Salary Survey
    • Strategic Meetings Report
    • VIEW ALL
  • WEBINARS
    • View All Webinars
  • EVENTS
    • Webinars
    • Business Travel Intelligence Summit
    • Business Travel Lodging Summit
    • Business Travel Show
    • Business Travel Tech Talk
    • Business Travel Trends Forecasts
    • Entertainment Travel Summit
    • Global Travel Risk Summit
    • Government Travel Summit
    • Innovate
    • Strategic Meetings Summit
    • Sustainable Business Travel Summit
    • VIEW ALL EVENTS
  • RESOURCES
    • Business Travel Buyer's Handbook
    • Business Travel Buyer's Techbook
    • Corporate Travel Index Calculator
    • Data Sources: The Reference Guide
    • White Papers & Case Studies
    • Influencers
    • Webinars
    • Videos
    • Hotel Search
Business Travel News
  • SECTIONS
    • Transportation
    • Lodging
    • Payment & Expense
    • Technology
    • Distribution
    • Meetings
    • Global
    • Management
    • Travel Procurement
    • Voices
    • Recent Issues
    Subscribe to NewslettersBTN DailyBTN GlobalBTN Travel ManagementTravel Procurement
    Subscribe to Print IssuesBusiness Travel NewsTravel Procurement
  • EXPERT Q&A
    • VIEW ALL INTERVIEWS
    As Buyers Rethink Service Models, SalesTrip Touts Pairing CRM with T&EAs Buyers Rethink Service Models, SalesTrip Touts Pairing CRM with T&E
    As Properties Multiply, Sonesta Aims to Grow Corp. Travel BusinessAs Properties Multiply, Sonesta Aims to Grow Corp. Travel Business
    Leibman and TarasAfter New Investment, Frosch and TCG Seek Opportunities in a Changed Market
  • RESEARCH
    • Corporate Travel 100
    • Corporate Travel Index
    • Expense Manager Report
    • Small & Midsize Enterprise
    • Salary Survey
    • Strategic Meetings Report
    • VIEW ALL
    Annual Supplier Ratings• Car Rental Survey & Report• Hotel Survey & Report• Airline Survey & Report
    Special Reports• State of the Industry Report• Business Travel Stakeholders
  • WEBINARS
    • View All Webinars
    Revising Travel Policies: Changes to Consider as Travel Resumes

    Monday, Mar 8 at 1pm ET / 10am PT
    Sponsored By: TripActions

    Reporting for 2021: Comparing and Contrasting with Past

    Thurs, Mar 18 at 11am ET / 8am PT
    Sponsored By: TripActions

    Rebuilding Your Travel Strategy for a Changed World

    Tues, Mar 23 at 12pm ET / 9am PT
    Sponsored By: TripActions

  • EVENTS
    • Webinars
    • Business Travel Intelligence Summit
    • Business Travel Lodging Summit
    • Business Travel Show
    • Business Travel Tech Talk
    • Business Travel Trends Forecasts
    • Entertainment Travel Summit
    • Global Travel Risk Summit
    • Government Travel Summit
    • Innovate
    • Strategic Meetings Summit
    • Sustainable Business Travel Summit
    • VIEW ALL EVENTS
    6th Annual Entertainment Travel Summit

    Virtual Event - March 23, 2021

    Inaugural Travel Procurement Virtual Workshop Series

    Virtual - Wednesdays from March 3 through April 7

    6th Annual Global Travel Risk Summit America

    Virtual Event - April 14, 2021

  • RESOURCES
    • Business Travel Buyer's Handbook
    • Business Travel Buyer's Techbook
    • Corporate Travel Index Calculator
    • Data Sources: The Reference Guide
    • White Papers & Case Studies
    • Influencers
    • Webinars
    • Videos
    • Hotel Search
    BTN CTI Calculator

    Filter in or out as many as 200 cities, as well as hotel and car rental class and meals of the day and watch as the per-diem calculator automatically adjusts per diems to your program. Drill down into cost breakdowns and export the results.

  • Business Travel News Supplier DirectorySUPPLIER DIRECTORY

Global

Etihad Goes Contrarian With Its Alliance Strategy

By Michael B. Baker / August 12, 2015 / Contact Reporter
Share

Etihad Airways has quietly built itself into the world’s fifth-largest airline group. It's done so by cobbling together its own alliance structure, and the carrier's clear aim now is to pull select business travel southward from Europe.

“Quietly” might seem an odd term, considering the public Open Skies dustup between the biggest three U.S. airlines and three Persian Gulf carriers, including Etihad, about the latter group's rapid growth. But Etihad claims less volume than its peers. While Etihad has 200 aircraft on order over the next 15 years, which will almost triple its current fleet size, Emirates still will dwarf Etihad. “We’re still half the size of Emirates, and we couldn’t catch up—even if we ordered as many aircraft—from a scale and operation perspective," president and CEO James Hogan said during the Global Business Travel Association’s annual convention. “We felt it was smarter to achieve access to market and then integrate and build a different model.”

That model has consisted of equity investments in several other airlines, including Airberlin, Alitalia, Virgin Australia and India’s Jet Airways. Thus Etihad operates a group with about 700 aircraft that it can shift between airlines as needed, Hogan said. The airlines can share sales resources as competition rules allow, and Etihad has invested in the carriers’ loyalty programs, he said. Those carriers also provide network connection to such major markets as Germany, Italy and Australia—building blocks toward Etihad's aim to make Abu Dhabi a crossroads for the Middle East and India.

Some of the carriers associated with Etihad also are in the major airline alliances. Hogan said he has no interest in pulling them out, but don’t expect Etihad to be joining up itself. “We may be disruptive, but I don’t believe in the alliance model,” Hogan said. “It’s fractured and dominated, whether they be American or European, by the major players, and it squeezes competition.” Instead, Etihad has developed codeshare agreements with more than 50 carriers, he said.

As it grows, Etihad's “hard focus on the customer” has translated into ultraluxury cabin offerings like residences with personal butlers and on-board showers, as well as enhancements in other classes of service. Business class, for example, includes the customizable dining options usually reserved for first-class passengers on other airlines, and even economy class carries “little surprises and delights” like adjustable neck pillows and midmovie popcorn service, said vice president of guest services Linda Celestino.

“Most of our corporate guests travel in business class or first class, and it’s around intelligent living,” Celestino said. “It’s about how we create a space or environment to re-create life as you want it on that flight experience.”

More Global
Related
IATA: 2021 Air Demand Starting Off Worse than 2020 Ended

January 2021 global passenger demand fell 72 percent from the pre-pandemic level in January 2019,...

Qantas to Restart International Services from October

Qantas and its low-cost sister airline Jetstar will restart regular international passenger flights to...

Latam Partners with Labs for Passenger Covid-19 Tests

Latam Airlines Group is offering its passengers discounted Covid-19 testing via partnerships with...

More Global

IATA: 2021 Air Demand Starting Off Worse than 2020 Ended
Qantas to Restart International Services from October
Latam Partners with Labs for Passenger Covid-19 Tests
Complex New Travel Risks Spur New Approaches for 2021

VIEW ALL
Subscribe to Our

Free Newsletters

pixel2

Click Here for our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

  • Most Read
  • Most Shared
  1. Business Travelers Facing a Potential Rental Car Shortage
  2. Complex New Travel Risks Spur New Approaches for 2021
  3. Groups360 Claims Direct Guest, Meeting Room Booking Ability, IHG First to Deploy
  4. IHG: Death of Business Travel Exaggerated, Remote Work Could Offer Boost
  5. American Unveils 'Corporate Experience' NDC Offer in Spate of Policy Tweaks
  1. Business Travelers Facing a Potential Rental Car Shortage
  2. HRS Launches Hotel Sustainability Assessment, Database
  3. Groups360 Claims Direct Guest, Meeting Room Booking Ability, IHG First to Deploy
  4. TripActions: Most Unused Air Ticket Volume Will Expire This Year
  5. Complex New Travel Risks Spur New Approaches for 2021
Business Travel News Business Travel News
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS
NORTHSTAR TRAVEL GROUP
Business Travel News
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Upload Print Ad Material
  • Purchase Reprints
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Subscribe to BTN
  • Subscribe to Travel Procurement
  • Subscribe to Newsletters
  • BTN Europe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
Business Travel News
Business Travel News Travel Procurement The Beat
Northstar Travel Group
  • Retail Travel
  • Travel Weekly
  • Travel Weekly Asia
  • Travel Weekly China
  • TravelAge West
  • TravelPulse
  • TravelPulse Canada
  • TravelPulse Quebec

  • Hotel Investment
  • Burba Hotel Network

  • Travel Technology
  • Inntopia
  • Phocuswire
  • Phocuswright
  • Web In Travel
  • Meetings & Incentives
  • Northstar Meetings Group
  • Meetings & Conventions
  • Meetings & Conventions China
  • Meetings & Conventions Asia
  • Meeting News
  • Successful Meetings
  • Incentive
  • SportsTravel

  • Data Products
  • Agent Studio
  • AXUS Travel App
  • Intelliguide
  • travel42
Northstar Travel Group
Copyright ©2021 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. All rights reserved.    100 Lighting Way Secaucus, NJ 07094-3626 USA | Telephone: (201) 902-2000
RRManagement rrtestprocurement