Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways could cancel billions of dollars of aircraft orders placed with Airbus and Boeing, its chief executive said on Wednesday, citing uncertainty over delivery dates and the industry’s recovery from the pandemic.
“The manufactures can’t confirm when they are going to be delivered and you have a market that you don’t know when its going to recover,” Tony Douglas said of Airbus A320neo and Boeing 777X aircraft the airline ordered nearly a decade ago.
Etihad would continue to take deliveries of Airbus A350-1000 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner liner jets, which Douglas said would become the backbone of the fleet that will trim to 65 aircraft.