Interview: Etihad CEO Downplays Rivals’ Complaints to Focus on the ‘Long Game’
Skift Take
To hear Etihad CEO James Hogan tell it, he's got a "business to run, whether it's economic, whether it's political, whether it's pandemic or whether it's war. You've got to tackle those issues and keep focus." On that "local" Open Skies issue in the U.S.? Hogan will deal with it, whatever comes. No big deal.
James Hogan, the CEO of Etihad Airways, sat in a second-floor board room at an upscale New York hotel last Friday and was impeccably dressed, confident, and incredulous at what he considers to be a "local issue," namely the allegations from Delta, American and United in the name of Open Skies that the Abu Dhabi-based carrier is running roughshod over the three legacy airlines.
Asked whether the three carriers' Open Skies complaint, under review by the U.S. government, has been losing momentum, Hogan tells Skift: "You know, I run a global airline based in Abu Dhabi and we operate in six continents in the world. We've have challenges in every continent. Quite frankly, we've tackled this. We've addressed it properly and thoroughly and I'm more focused on the day-to-day issues at a point in time.
"The [Obama] administration, State, Commerce, and Transport have all said they'll come out with the appropriate guidelines," Hogan says. "When they do, we'll take it from there. We haven't d
