Etihad reveals $7b investment plan over five years, will retrofit old Boeing jets

Etihad Airways on Wednesday revealed a $7b investment plan over the next five years in a bid to “double the size of the airline until 2030.” Speaking to CNBC’s Dan Murphy, Etihad’s Group CEO Antonoaldo Neves revealed passengers should expect “a totally different airline” within the next two to three years. Much of the $7b will go into revamping its existing fleet of planes, as well as the purchase of new aircraft further down the line, he said. The Abu Dhabi-based airline currently has 92 planes operating. But Neves is aiming for the skies, with the hope of having up to 170 planes by the end of the decade. The expanded network of planes will allow the company to offer more “convenient” time slots for passengers traveling to Europe and Southeast Asia who want to travel at 2 p.m. in the afternoon rather than in the early hours of the morning, he said. Neves said Etihad will begin retrofitting and revamping “dated” Boeing 777 planes from 2026 onward, this is due to what he described as “the constraints that we have in the global aviation market.” “There are no planes available,” he said. The purchase of new planes, the retrofitting of the Boeing 777s, boosting the number of business class seats and replacing existing in-flight WiFi with stronger connectivity are all priorities for the United Arab Emirates-based airline.<br/>