Etihad continues to do badly but rumors of a marriage with Emirates have once again been denied by its management.
Even if the airline lost less money in 2018 than in 2017 and that the cost reduction strategy is bearing fruit (even if we cannot predict its impact on sales and customer satisfaction) Etihad’s situation continues to cause concern. But the Abu Dhabi airline remains confident and denies any rumors that would more or less marry it to another player.
Etihad will make it on its own according to its CEO
The most credible of these rumors is that of a takeover of Etihad by its neighbor Emirates. A rumor that has been around for a long time, and that seemed to make perfect sense even before Etihad was in trouble, and seems to make even more sense today.
But the management doesn’t see it that way. Tony Douglas, CEO of Emirates said:
“I laugh a lot because when Bloomberg ran that story, it was quite frankly the laziest piece of cheap journalism I’ve ever seen. So the clown who wrote it was probably no more than a clown, because anybody could have written that story, quite frankly. But, not surprisingly, I’ve been asked this question ten thousand times because this clown wrote this clown story.”
The bloomberg journalist will appreciate it.
A marriage not as clownish as Etihad’s investments
Self-confidence is good, but the reality of the figures makes one really wonder how long Etihad can survive like this.
Because Etihad has already done clownish things with equity investments which at times gave it the appearance of an alliance before the house of cards collapsed, dragging down Air Berlin (bankruptcy) and Alitalia (desperately looking for a savior). Today Etihad holds stakes in Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Virgin Australia, not to mention the most clownish of them all: Jet Airways which is on the verge of bankruptcy. One wonders if Bruno Matheu, once in charge of this erratic strategy, came to the office with a red nose.
At this rate we will continue to talk about the clownish future of Etihad for a long time. Let’s hope it doesn’t end with a sad clown.
Photo : Etihad Airways by Arseniy Shemyakin Photo via Shutterstock