Abu Dhabi's national airline Etihad Airways expects air travel demand to rebound in the second half of this year, as vaccines roll out and travel restrictions ease. But it does not now expect a full recovery before 2024, one year later than it predicted last month.
Etihad's senior vice president for global sales and cargo Martin Drew said that the airline is seeing a recovery in demand on some routes, namely to and from Pakistan and Bangladesh.
"When the restrictions start to get lifted, what we will see is that the segments that will come back first will certainly be the VFR [visiting friends and/or relatives] traffic and also leisure," Drew said. "Business travel is going to take some time to return.""
The airline resumed passenger flights to the Seychelles, Moscow and Casablanca this month, and plans to launch flights to Tel Aviv on 6 April.
Jet fuel demand and passenger numbers in the UAE have been inching up since a collapse in the second quarter of last year. The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority began suspending flights from initial coronavirus hotspots like China and Iran as early as the first week of February, and imposed a full suspension of all inbound and outbound passenger flights from 25 March.
While Dubai began to ease restrictions in late June ahead of a full reopening on 7 July, Abu Dhabi was slower to open its borders, opting only to resume flights to a few select international destinations on 24 December. Etihad Airways is still gradually rebuilding its network.
Etihad's air passenger traffic fell by 76pc to 4.2mn last year, from 17.5mn in 2019. Traffic at the world's largest and busiest hub, Dubai International airport, fell by 70pc last year compared to 2019 levels as a result of travel restrictions.
Jet fuel demand in the country has recovered slowly, with travel restrictions in place globally to contain the spread of Covid-19 variants. Demand is unlikely to fully return to pre-pandemic levels before 2023, according to market participants.
