Etihad Airways had a hell of a November. The Abu Dhabi airline carried 2.1 million passengers last month, which is 28 percent more than November last year and the best single month they’ve ever had.
For context, that’s not just a few extra people here and there—that’s hundreds of thousands more passengers choosing to fly Etihad in a market where Emirates, Qatar Airways, and everyone else are fighting tooth and nail for the same travelers.
What makes these numbers even more impressive is that Etihad managed to keep 89 percent of their seats filled throughout the month. Anyone who’s flown economy knows how miserable a packed plane can be, but from a business perspective, empty seats are just money flying away. Etihad’s filling nearly nine out of every ten seats, which means they’re not just flying more—they’re flying efficiently.
Looking at the bigger picture, Etihad’s moved 20.2 million passengers from January through November, up 20 percent from the same stretch in 2024. They’ve held an average load factor of 88 percent all year. So this isn’t some weird November spike. They’ve been steadily growing for months, and people keep booking.
Jump Ahead To:
Five New Cities in One Month
Here’s where Etihad’s been making moves: they launched flights to Tunis, Hanoi, Chiang Mai, Hong Kong, and Medina all in November. Five new destinations in thirty days. That’s either really smart expansion or someone in their route planning department has been drinking way too much coffee.
Probably the former, though. Each of these cities makes sense for different reasons. Hong Kong gets them back into a major Asian business hub after years of restricted travel there. Hanoi and Chiang Mai tap into Southeast Asia’s tourism boom—both people going there and people from there connecting through Abu Dhabi to get somewhere else. Tunis opens North Africa. Medina serves the huge religious travel market, which is massive business in the Gulf.
The thing about launching multiple routes at once is it makes your entire network more valuable. If you’re flying to Hong Kong now, suddenly passengers from Medina or Tunis can connect through Abu Dhabi to get there. More connections mean more reasons for people to choose your airline over the competition. It compounds in ways that aren’t immediately obvious when you just look at one route.
They’re Buying Planes Like It’s Going Out of Style
You can’t just announce new routes and hope planes magically appear. Etihad ended November with 124 aircraft, up from 98 a year ago. That’s 26 more planes in twelve months, which represents a massive amount of money and commitment.
They added four Airbus A321LR aircraft just in November. If you’re not an aviation nerd, the A321LR is basically a narrow-body plane that can fly surprisingly long distances while burning way less fuel than bigger jets. It’s perfect for routes that don’t have enough demand for a massive widebody but still need decent range.
That’s probably how they’re making routes like Chiang Mai or Tunis work financially. You don’t need a 300-seat plane to fly there, but you need something that can cover the distance without bankrupting you on fuel costs. The A321LR fits that gap perfectly.
So What’s Really Happening Here?
Growing passenger numbers by 28 percent in a month when everyone’s competing for travelers isn’t easy. Doing it while keeping your planes 89 percent full? That’s actually hard. It means Etihad isn’t just throwing capacity at the market and praying people show up—they’re adding flights where real demand exists.
Some airlines will discount fares into oblivion to fill seats. You can hit high load factors that way, but you’re not making any money. Etihad’s managing to grow significantly while maintaining these load factors throughout the year, which suggests people actually want to fly with them at prices that presumably make economic sense.
For Abu Dhabi, this matters beyond just airline statistics. The emirate’s been trying to position itself as a legitimate alternative to Dubai for years now, and you can’t do that without a strong airline. More passengers means more business travelers spending money in Abu Dhabi, more tourists visiting, more economic activity that ripples beyond just the airport.
There’s also an element of regional competition here that’s hard to ignore. Emirates dominates out of Dubai. Qatar Airways has built Doha into a major hub. Etihad’s been the smallest of the three big Gulf carriers for a while, and these numbers suggest they’re closing that gap.
Whether they can keep this up is the real question. It’s easier to post 28 percent growth when you’re smaller. As you get bigger, those percentage increases get harder to sustain. The comparisons get tougher. The easy markets get saturated, and you’re left with the harder, riskier route decisions.
But right now? Etihad’s clearly doing something that’s working. The planes are full, the new routes are launching, and millions of people are choosing to fly with them. In an industry where margins are thin and competition is brutal, that counts for a lot.