Etihad Airways announced its strongest second quarter and half-year financial performances on record, reflecting continued solid growth in its airline alliance strategy and global cargo operations. The national carrier of the United Arab Emirates achieved an eight per cent increase in Q2 2013 passenger revenues, generating US $921 million (2012: US $855 million), while passenger revenues for the first half of 2013 reached US $1.8 billion (2012: $1.6 billion), up by 13 per cent.
    
Revenue generated by codeshare and equity alliance airline partners was US $184 million in Q2 2013. This was 25 per cent above the US $147 million turnover in the same period of 2012.  Partnership revenue comprised 20 per cent of the airline’s total passenger revenue in both Q2 and the first half of 2013.  The President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, James Hogan, said the company’s Q2 and half year results were achieved despite the continuation of unsteady economic and geopolitical factors, with air fare yields slightly lower for the quarter, compressed by strong competitive capacity growth and resultant price competition.
                                                              
“Despite the tough global trading climate, we have still achieved record, double digit growth in both Q2 and the first half of 2013,” Hogan said.  Etihad Cargo continued to achieve the strongest growth in the company, with 112,963tons uplifted in Q2 2013 (2012: 89,470 tons) and 215,124 tons in the first half of 2013 (2012: 174,622 tons). This reflected a massive 26 per cent growth in Q2 and 23 per cent growth for the first half of 2013.
 
The growth in cargo volumes was underpinned by the delivery in Q2 of three new freighter aircraft – one Airbus A330-200F, one Boeing 777-200F and the company’s first Boeing 747-8F, which was wet leased from Atlas Air – taking the cargo fleet to nine. Cargo performance was further boosted by increased passenger services, providing more under-floor freight capacity.