A Report on Etihad

Airlines

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Table of Contents

 Introduction to the organization

 Values Creation

 Organizational Structure

 Organizational Excellence

 Recommendations

 Conclusion
1. Introduction to the organization

Etihad Airways is a flag carrier organization of UAE which was established in 2003. The word

“Etihad” refers to a union. The major activity of the company is the transportation of passengers.

In addition to it, the company operates Etihad Cargo and Etihad Holidays. The company also has

their share in various other organizations such as Jat Airways and Air Berlin [ CITATION Eti16 \l

1033 ].

The slogan of the company is “From Abu Dhabi to the World”. The company is among the top

three airlines of Middle East. The top one is Emirates Airlines and the Qatar Airways is on the

second number. The other key competitors of the company are as follows:

British Airways

This is the second largest company in Europe and at the top in the world level airline companies.

The company operates its business in 16 countries with its 300 planes. The company is famous

for its technological projects for offering differentiated services.

Qatar Airways

The company was started in 1994. Currently, the company has its linkage with 169 destinations.

Construction of Doha international airport is going to add more points of success to this

company.

Singapore Airlines and American Airlines are also among the competitors of Etihad Airways.

In 2003, the Etihad Airways was first time appointed as a flagship carrier of UAE. After that, it

becomes the fastest growing airline in the country. The company operates its flights for more
than 80 destinations in the world with approximate 1300 flights on weekly basis. Etihad cargo is

a cargo service of the company and Etihad holidays is an in-house program of the company.

From 2003 to now, the company has received more than 30 international air travel awards.

Mission, vision and organizational chart

The mission of the company is to provide the best of the Arabian hospitality to the passengers as

well as to increase the prestige of the country in terms of hospitality in views of other countries

of east and the west.

The main goal of the company is to be a global airline which can bring a change in the airline

industry by changing the conventions of the airline hospitality. The company wants to provide a

relax and safe environment to the customers of the company with the practice of high global

standard.
The vision of the company is connected to Arabian heritage. As per the vision of the company, it

wants to bring a change in the traditional conventions of the airline industry. The mission of the

company is like a corporation to provide a refreshing and friendly environment to the passengers

[ CITATION Eti16 \l 1033 ].

2. Values Creation

Etihad Airways focus on adding value to the people, communities and planet. Their agenda of

value creation is focused at Etihad Airways Aviation Group. Through this, the company wants to

ensure about cohesive programs which cover all the levels of business and operations of the

company. The company’s together initiatives to create values are as follows:

• Support for Abu Dhabi 2030 vision to grow together.

• To maintain an eco-friendly environment for greener together.

• To develop and to maintain well being of the employees.

• Contribution to charities and to fulfill human needs.

Key Stakeholders of the company:

Employees

The biggest stakeholders of the company are the employees. The overall income of the

employees depends on the company. It becomes the responsibility of the company to make the

employees satisfied. Satisfied employees always provide efficient services to the company. At

present, the company has 10000 employees all over the world [ CITATION Eti16 \l 1033 ].

Suppliers
Suppliers of aircraft material such as Airbus as well as suppliers who provide food and beverage

to the company are the important stakeholders of the company.

Creditors

The creditors of Etihad Airways are also important stakeholders of the company. It includes

financial institutes who provide credit to the company and firms which offer raw material to the

company on credit [ CITATION Mar13 \l 1033 ].

Agents and distributors

Agents and distributors of the company are located around the world. These agents and

distributors are all the businesses which are providing services to the company. Before any

decision making the process at the organizational level, the company should think about these

agents and distributors.

Customers or Passengers

Passengers of Etihad Airlines also play a major role as stakeholders of the company. The whole

business of the company operates through these customers of the company only. These

stakeholders also include the companies or individuals who use cargo services of the company.

Business Partners

The company Etihad airlines have its connections with various other companies such as Virgin

Airlines. Any action of the company also affects the companies connected to it. Thus they are

also known as stakeholders of the company [ CITATION Joh08 \l 1033 ].

Sponsorships
Various events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai like Manchester city football club and the Abu Dhabi

Grand Prix. The company used to provide a considerable amount of fund to the organization for

conducting these events. The performance of these events is directly impacted by Etihad Airways

[ CITATION Kir16 \l 1033 ].

Airport Authorities of Destinations

As the company operates at 87 destinations, thus airport authority of every destination is

considered as a stakeholder of the company. Variation in frequency of a single authority will

impact the overall performance of the company.

Associations

The company has its linkage to various associations such as General Civil Aviation Authority

and International Air Transport Association. The company has recently signed a Memorandum

of association with this association. It is the responsibility of the management of the company to

ensure that the company is following all the guidelines of these associations. Not only this but

the trade unions like pilot associations and cabin crew associations also major stakeholders of the

company.

Tourism Industry

The prosperity of the tourism industry of the country depends upon the passengers and tourists in

the country as a whole. Tourism union and their tie-up with hotels are also the stakeholders of

Etihad Airways [ CITATION Baj09 \l 1033 ].

Government
All the government agencies are also the stakeholder of the company such as national revenue

board and the economic department of the country.

Competitors

Emirates airlines and Etihad Airways are the major stakeholders of the company. These

companies expect fair competition in the market [ CITATION Mar13 \l 1033 ] . They would be

concerned if a company uses any unethical practice in the market.

3. Organization effectiveness

Organizational effectiveness is known as the capability of an organization to meet its objectives.

An effective organization can be defined as an association which is producing without any waste.

In this type of organization, every individual knows his work and doing all the work very well.

Organization effectiveness can also be defined as the increased production with minimum

expenditure on human and material resources [ CITATION Ion01 \l 1033 ]. Any organization can

maximize its profits, if it has a combination of effectiveness and efficiency.

The company Etihad Airways has strong air transportation which is connected to various other

industries. The operations of the company have been extended with Holiday spots, Gamings-

Rugby, Football, Racing, and Golf and into Crystal Cargo in which the customers are always

interested. The company fulfils all kinds of tourism needs of the customers with entertainment

clubs, excellent features for travellers and high fashioned equipment while travelling for

providing comfort to the travellers. Etihad Gaming provides the best entertainment clubs and

features for travellers with excellent and high fashioned equipment and treatments. The

company also deals in the transportation of cargo goods. As per the total portfolio of the
company, 60% of the total income of the company is from Airlines, 20% from Cargo and

remaining from gaming and holiday packages [ CITATION Bow18 \l 1033 ].

Service portfolio of the company

The products offered by the company are Diamond class air service which is also known as first

class, Pearl class airline service which is also known as business class service and economy

class. The company promises to the customers for providing excellent services in flight as well

as on the ground.

The key factors which played a great role in the effectiveness of Etihad Airways are

Differentiation

Etihad Airways focus on differentiating its services from its competitors by providing value-

added services to the customers such as widening seats, the best quality of food and ease of e-

ticketing with extended features. These features of the company distinguish it from its

competitors [ CITATION Eti16 \l 1033 ].

The most important concern of Etihad Airways is to build a string name n the targeted market.

For doing so the company believes in creating a strong base of customers. To retain the old

customers, the company also offers free tickets or other special services during their journey.

Alliances

The airline industry is focusing on maintaining the connections between all the airline companies

[ CITATION Har96 \l 1033 ] . So the connection of Etihad Airways with other companies can fulfil

the needs of the company to achieve the aim of organizational effectiveness.

Relationship with Suppliers

The success of Airlines companies depends upon the relationship of the company with the

supplier. These strong relations provide safety to the company at the time of changes in prices.

Measurement of organizational effectiveness

Any organization can measure the effectiveness by comparing net profitability and the targeted

profitability of the organization. The growth of the company and reviews of the customers can

also be used as the additional data but net profitability of the company is the main symbol of

effectiveness at the organization [ CITATION Kea86 \l 1033 ].

The organizations which have high organizational effectiveness are strong in the key areas which

are: leadership, decision making and structure, people, work processes and systems, and culture.

Every organization is required to adopt a dynamic environment to achieve its objectives. Time to

time evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization is the main strategy to

continue the growth and development of the organization.

Basis characteristics of the current structure of the organization are as follows

The structure of a company consists of the board of chairman at the top. Board of vice chairman

is working under him. Further, he has four vice presidents of different departments working

under him [ CITATION Joh08 \l 1033 ]. These departments are project management, operations and
engineering, service department and human resource. Board of director of the company is HH

Sheikh Hamed Bin Zayad Al Nahyan, He is also the Vice-chairman of the company. The

president of the company is James Hogan. The board has various subcommittees and

independent executive members working under it. Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Khalifa Sultan Al

Suwadi, Mubarak Hamad Al Muhairi, George Cheaib are the notable members of the company.

(Etihad Global 2016)

Problems and Changes required

Planning and development, evaluation and maintenance, utilization and retention of employees

are the major responsibilities of vice president of human resource department because he is also

an executive of this department. But these duties are being ignored by this department which is

the major problem in the structure of the organization. The management of the airline should be

focused by the human resource department of the organization [ CITATION Kea86 \l 1033 ]. There is

a need to find out the new ways for execution of plans. According to reviews of the customers,

many customers are dissatisfied from the company. The reason for this dissatisfaction is the

various issued faced by them regarding services if the airline.

The boards of the director are searching for a particular reason for this satisfaction so that a

particular solution can be found.

5. Organizational Excellence
Organizational excellence of an organization can be defined as the strength of the organization in

motivating the employees to deliver the products as per the requirements of the customers within

business expectations.

The company has a very smooth network with its different departments and the company gives

equal importance to all the departments of the company. All departments are treated as essential

and contribute to bringing a positive change for the company.

Etihad Airlines focus on corporate social responsibility to achieve organizational excellence. The

major principles of excellence adopted by the company are people engagement, process

management and supplier or partner focus.

For people engagement, the company adopts situational leadership style at the company. As per

this leadership style, the approach of leaders can be changed according to the needs of the

market. The company moves to consultative approach as and when required. When it feels that
the employees of the company should be involved in the decision-making process then the

company adopts this policy of democratic and autocratic approach [ CITATION Mar13 \l 1033 ].

Process management of the company is done through proper planning in the organization. For

every planning in the company, it keeps in view the objectives of corporate social responsibility.

Through this, the company wants to ensure about cohesive programs which cover all the levels

of business and operations of the company. The company’s together initiatives to create values

are to support for Abu Dhabi 2030 vision to grow together, to maintain an eco-friendly

environment for greener together, to develop and to maintain well being of the employees and to

make a contribution to charities and to fulfil human needs [ CITATION Joh08 \l 1033 ].

Regarding the excellence of the organization, it has achieved various Excellency awards such as

under aviation business awards, the award for the best Airline of the Year 2010. For the

continuous second year, the company grabbed the award of the World’s Leading Airline in 2010

in the World Travel Awards.

For its product segment, the company has achieved the awards under the category of Business

Travel Awards for the Best First Class service Provide and the Best Business Class Airline in the

Irish Travel Trade Awards. The company has achieved various other awards for other services

throughout the year. The organizations which have high organizational effectiveness are strong

in the key areas which are: leadership, decision making and structure, people, work processes

and systems, and culture. Every organization is required to adopt a dynamic environment to

achieve its objectives. Time to time evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the

organization is the main strategy to continue the growth and development of the organization.

The Excellency of Etihad Airways is the only reason for its effectiveness.
6. Recommendations

From the analyses, I have observed that an Etihad airline is not competing well with other

competitors. The company is not trying to expand its location in those areas where it is not

reachable as compared to its competitors.

Thus according to my recommendation the company should focus the major part of its budget on

investment in those areas where it is not reachable yet. Otherwise, those areas would be covered

by its competitors.

Another issue with the planning policy of the company is that it used to take a long time to plan

for its policies. This issue becomes the major reason for the competitive disadvantage of the

company. Etihad Airways have a strong support of Dubai government behind it. Thus the

company can expand its business more by starting new services for Dubai based travellers such

as flights for holiday packages on a special discount to keep a strong base of the customers of the

company.

The company should take time to time feedback of the customers for its services so that the

major stakeholders of the company can be satisfied. In short, the company should adopt a

customer-oriented approach in its services.

7. Conclusion

To conclude, Etihad Airways focus on adding value to the people, communities and planet. The

main goal of the company is to be a global airline which can bring a change in the airline

industry by changing the conventions of the airline hospitality. The company wants to provide a

relax and safe environment to the customers of the company with the practice of high global
standard. Differentiation, strong brand name, Alliance with the customers and relationship with

suppliers are the main key features of the company which make it differentiated from its key

competitors, Qatar Airways and Emirates Airlines. All the above key features of the organization

help in measuring the effectiveness of the company.

There are some issues in the structure of the organization which is a little bit complex. Planning

and development, evaluation and maintenance, utilization and retention of employees are the

major responsibilities of vice president of human resource department because he is also an

executive of this department. But these duties are being ignored by this department which is the

major problem in the structure of the organization. The management of the airline should be

focused by the human resource department of the organization. There is a need to find out the

new ways for execution of plans.

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