UAE flag carrier Etihad Airways, which owns 24 per cent in Jet Airways, today elevated Neerja Bhatia as its vice-president for India and the Subcontinent.
Bhatia joined Etihad, for which India is the largest market, in 2004 as sales manager for western India, shortly after the airline launched its flights to Mumbai.
She moved on to become manager for western and southern India, before being appointed as India general manager in 2007.
Commenting on her elevation, Etihad senior sales vice-president Danny Barranger said Bhatia has played a key role in the expansion of Etihad in India during the last 11 years.
She will be based in Mumbai and will lead Etihad’s commercial activities across the region as we look to expand our sales operations in India, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, the Seychelles, and Sri Lanka.
Etihad currently operates flights from Abu Dhabi to 11 destinations in the country – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kochi, Kozhikode, and Thiruvananthapuram.
Together with strategic partner Jet, in which it invested over ₹2,800 crore for a 24 per cent consideration, both the airlines fly between Abu Dhabi and 14 Indian cities, operating more than 200 return flights each week.
Etihad began operations in 2003, and in 2014 carried 14.8 million passengers from across all the continents using a fleet of 111 aircraft. It also has over 200 aircraft on order – 69 Boeing 787s, 25 Boeing 777-Xs, 62 Airbus A350s and nine Airbus A380s.
Etihad holds equity investments in Airberlin, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles, Aer Lingus, Alitalia, Jet Airways and Virgin Australia, and is in the process of formalising an equity investment in the Swiss-based Etihad Regional, operated by Darwin Airline.