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00:00European carriers, US carriers, starting to talk about things slowing up, softening a little bit,
00:04North Atlantic. Are you seeing anything like that at that point, at this point?
00:09Yeah, we're blessed. We're in a very special region, right? The region is growing a lot.
00:14I mean, tourism for Abu Dhabi is growing like never before. The GDP in the region is growing
00:20a lot. I mean, in this kind of environment, right, where GDP grows 5%, aviation grows 10%.
00:26So we see flows into Abu Dhabi. We see flows from Europe to Abu Dhabi, from Southeast Asia to Abu Dhabi,
00:34from Europe to Southeast Asia, very, very strong. And we see a lot of premium demand coming.
00:39Okay, let's talk about that premium demand. We're standing in the premium cabin.
00:42I'm assuming at the moment that this is full and you're setting a lot of seats at this front end
00:47of the plane. How correlated is that to the stock market in the US? How correlated is that to the
00:54crypto market? If we start to see some softening there, do we see some softening right here in
01:00this cabin? I would say that depends on how we're exposed, right? We put a big bet on these planes
01:05at 321 long range. We have a first class, right, as a first seat. We have this life-led business
01:11class and this plane doesn't fly to the US, right? So we see the premium demand is strong as well in
01:17other markets, right? We see the premium demand is strong in the GCC, in the Middle East, in Europe.
01:23But of course, right, especially when you talk about the US market where premium demand is extremely
01:27strong right now, there is some influence, right, on what you see in wealth and with stock market
01:34depreciation, right? So we're very conscious about that. Forget that when you travel abroad and you
01:40go for leisure, right, with your family, right? The airfare is 20% of the expenses, right? I think
01:48people are starting to realize, right, that as part of the entire experience, right, having a business
01:54class seat is also important, right? So why not saving, right, in four or five dinners so that I can
02:02I can buy a better seat, right, and do something different with my travel experience. So I think people
02:08are starting to think more about, look, I deserve that, and that's good, that's good.
02:14Can you get the airplanes you want right now? I mean, we can't. To be really direct, we can't.
02:19We'd love to. I mean, our load factors in September were 90%, 9-0, right? There's a bit of delay,
02:28but I think things are improving, right? I mean, we got good news from Airbus recently, right? We had a
02:33plane that was arriving in Q1, 2026. They offer us to anticipate, right, to Q4, 25. So that's really
02:41nice, right? These 321LRs, we, our plan was to get 10 in 2025. We got all 10 in 2025, right? We have
02:50seven now and we have three that are coming between the end of November and early December, but it's a
02:56challenge. I would like to have more wide bodies today. Yep. I have 120 planes. I could take 20 wide bodies
03:02today. Today. Okay. So that's how constrained the market is. Is that why you're buying A330s from
03:10Airbus? Exactly. And placing more orders for the A350? That's the key point. The 330-900 is an amazing
03:16plane, as a coincidence. And how quickly can you get one of those? 2027. Right. So that's really quick,
03:21right? I mean, we ordered the plane in more or less, we decided, right, and started the conversation with
03:27Airbus more or less three, four months ago. So we're going to get the business class seats in two years and a
03:31half, right? By, by Q3, Q4, 27. And that was a key decision criteria to get the 330-900s.
03:39And the A350-1000 that Tim Clark over at Emirates won't buy, you're happy with?
03:43We're very happy. I mean, the plane is actually the highest aircraft utilization that we have in
03:48the fleet today. It can fly anywhere that we want to fly. It can go to Chicago. It can go to Sydney
03:55with high pay loads. Cargo is very important business for us. Our cargo business is completely
04:00integrated with the passenger business. So we have five freighters. But these freighters, they feed
04:05our passenger business, our passenger batteries. And the 350-1000 is amazing for freighter. I mean,
04:13it carries a lot of cargo. We're very happy with the plane. Of course, the engine is being worked,
04:20right? I mean, the engine has to come off-wing earlier than we would like. But reality is,
04:26we don't take on that risk, right? That risk is actually taken on by the power-by-the-hour deal
04:31we have with World Voice. And they have been phenomenal, right? So I fly the plane 15 hours
04:34per day. I have a lot of time to change an engine, right? And I can do a quick three-hour,
04:41four-hour engine change. And that's okay for us. So we're really happy with the performance.
04:46That's why you order more. Would you buy the 777-10, which now, again, Emirates is talking about?
04:55That's an aircraft that nobody talked about up until now. 777-X-9, effectively, was the aircraft
05:01that was available. If it was available to you, would you have one of those as well? It's funny,
05:05because our question... We bought 777-X-9. They're going to come in 2032, 2033. We want to wait a
05:12little bit. We don't need those planes right now, but they're good planes. And my question to Boeing
05:17was exactly the opposite, right? When the 777-X-8 is going to be available, right? Okay.
05:22Because I was looking for the range, right? The range is very, very important for us. The payload
05:27is very, very important for us. So as of now, we're good with the 777-X-9. We're not entertaining
05:33other aircraft, but this is because of our network and the way we operate, right? We have a different
05:38model than our competitors. I bet they're making the right decision.
05:43Do you feel any pressure? Other airlines within the region have bought more Boeing
05:46because of the Trump effect. Do you feel that here?
05:49Not really. I mean, we have to do what's best for the airline. I mean, I usually say that
05:55there is no single route that Etihad fly, that there is a political component. We only fly to places
06:00that make money. The same goes for buying planes. So we... Abu Dhabi made a decision in 2019.
06:082019. And that inspired as well in the very successful model that we have in Emirates,
06:16right? It needs to be commercial. All the relations need to be commercial,
06:19because in the end, it's going to benefit everyone.
06:22Finally, you talked about the scarcity of airplanes. I think you have bought some in the
06:27secondary market. Are you looking for more? Is that a way of solving the aircraft?
06:31It is. Because there's some low-cost operators, like in the States and in Europe,
06:36maybe that are struggling right now. Maybe there are aircraft available. If another one of these
06:41came up, would you be in the market to buy them? It's critical. Secondary market is here. We have
06:48many planes that we sourced over the past two years in the secondary market. Narrow bodies,
06:54wide bodies. You've got to do it. You have no other choice, right? And they're going to be available,
07:00right? What you have to understand is how you manage the product, right? So we just got four
07:07narrow bodies from another carrier, right? That they were available. We're going to retrofit the
07:12planes. We're going to retrofit before we put into service. So the planes could be flying March.
07:16They're going to be flying probably July, August next year. So we're sourcing the seats,
07:22right? In that case, the narrow bodies easier to source the seats. We have some spare seats in business
07:27class that we can use. So you've got to be creative and agile. Agility is really, really important.
07:32The 33900 that we announced today, we decided less. We started studying less than six months ago.
07:41Wow. And in six months, we remitted these planes. We decided in three months in 2023,
07:47from January to March. So pace is very, very important. So where's the bottleneck for you right now?
07:53What is, it's aircraft, sure. It's aircraft. But is it a particular part of it? Is it, is it? It's more
08:00on the wide bodies. It's more on the wide bodies. But is it, is it the aircraft or is it the seats?
08:03Is it the engines? Is it the aircraft? Where's the bottleneck? It's a combination of metal and seats.
08:10So let me give you an example, right? I probably can get today and buy a 777, but there are some in the
08:19market right now, right? There are two that I know, right? But how do I do about the seats?
08:24I have to retrofit. Then I probably can make it late, early 28.
08:33So I buy the plane now and I can only fly Q1 28. Yeah, it's amazing.
08:38Anything else? What else is, in terms of the plans for the future,
08:42when you look at the business now, is the, is the curve, is the, is the business model established?
08:49Do you, you, is it operating on rails right now? Because there's so many things that appear to be
08:53kind of buffeting this sector at the moment. Do you have the airline where you want it to be?
08:57I think it is, but we're never happy, right? So, um, if you see what's going on right now with our
09:03network is in good shape, but I need to do more, right? I really need to keep strengthening my network
09:09everywhere. I need to have more in Europe. I have to have more in India. I have to have more in the
09:12US. I need to have more in China. So 23 to 24, I added a lot in India, double, double 23, 24, 24,
09:2125, 50% more capacity into Europe, 25, 26. I'm adding a lot of Southeast Asia, 27. We're going to be
09:29adding China. Then we're going to start it over again. Actually 27, China in the US. But I would say that
09:35we have great execution capability in Etihad, but I'm really looking forward is how, and I don't want
09:42to sound generic here, right? Because it's a little bit of a hype right now. Uh, and I started my career
09:47as a software engineer, right? So, but I'm really curious about how AI is going to reshape the way we
09:54sell tickets and the way our customers, they buy tickets. I think we're living in a very special time.
10:00Uh, we had a major transformation when e-commerce came, digital, right? Websites. Then we had the
10:07applications, right? In our mobile phone. I think LLM models right now with AI are going to really
10:14change a lot. Is it going to give you power back? Because at the moment there's a lot of...
10:18It's a great question, right? It's, it's, it's, it's the, the question that I think about every day,
10:24right? How it's going to influence my ability to sell my product. And as important as that,
10:29if you think about the top of the funnel, right? When you shop around and, um, I mean, look to book
10:36in the business, I mean, it's about 10%, right? 90% they look and don't buy of everyone in the world,
10:42right? Uh, but maybe you have some recurring customers and let's say it's 50, it doesn't
10:46matter, right? Let's say 50% come to my website and don't buy, right? I mean, if I can use AI
10:52to convert 20% of that 50%, I get 10% more customers like this. Yes. And I think that's
11:00not only about giving us the power back, right? To sell the tickets, but also our ability to
11:07influence customers in a different way at the top of the funnel. Yeah. Is the name of the game
11:12in the future, right? What about in here? What about in the experience? That's, we're going to keep
11:16investing. I mean, and I think, um, AI can help on that a lot, uh, but more on trying to understand
11:23what is the product that ultra customization. So the airlines in the past 10 years, they have been
11:29segmenting a lot, right? I mean, the network carriers in the West, they realize how they could
11:35fight the low cost by segmenting the cabin, right? And I think AI is going to help a lot in the product
11:41side. I mean, we're going to be able to understand very quickly what the different customers are.
11:45And how I can serve them differently in the aircraft.
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