James Hogan is to step down as CE of Etihad Airways in a move that will have reverberations across a market where the carrier has become a powerful force. The announcement of Hogan’s departure comes less than a week after he mounted a spirited defence of the carrier’s audacious strategy of buying minority stakes in often troubled carriers to drive traffic to Etihad’s Abu Dhabi hub. News of the planned departure this year for Hogan and James Rigney, CFO, came alongside the announcement of a strategic review for Etihad. Some observers think the airline’s owners, the emirate of Abu Dhabi, have grown increasingly uneasy with the high costs of taking minority stakes in global airlines, a strategy closely associated with Hogan. <br/>