Etihad Airways celebrates its 10th anniversary
04:36AM Sat 9 Nov, 2013
Abu Dhabi: Etihad Airways celebrated its 10th anniversary on Friday with a staff and family day held at Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
The event brought together employees and their families from across the company to mark the airline’s first decade of operations.
Ray Gammell, Etihad Chief People and Performance Officer, told Gulf News the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates was reaching out to staff and their families to thank them for their help in Etihad reaching is 10th birthday. He said the celebration and 10-year milestone was a fantastic achievement for the airline.
“We’ve achieved the impossible as an airline. But we can’t do that without our people, we can’t just ask, we have to give as well,” he said.
Etihad employees were each provided with three extra tickets to bring along friends and family to the event.
Karen Cambonga, who has worked for Etihad since the beginning of the year, was attending with a number of friends and colleagues.
She told Gulf News that the celebration was a good opportunity for colleagues to get to get together outside of work and that she was most excited about the Etihad talent show E-Talent.
Etihad put on grand show with a wide variety of entertainment for visitors including live performances, jumping castles and slides for children, bumper cars, and an opportunity to drive on the Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit.
Many attendees, like Cambonga, said they were looking forward to the E-Talent show. An X-Factor spinoff, the event saw performances from Etihad staff and had Australian actress and singer Danni Minogue on hand to judge the contestants.
Up to 20,000 visitors were expected to attend Friday’s celebration that lasted from noon until 10pm. Tom Clarke, Corporate Communications at Etihad, said this figure was based on the number people who expressed an interest in the event and requested family tickets.
Etihad employs 16,500 people globally.
Etihad representatives stressed that the event was not just for employees but their families as well as they too had contributed to the airline’s success, said Gammell.
Patricia Bano, whose husband has worked for Etihad for the past five years, agreed that families were just as involved in the progress of the airline.
She said that families had been part of the Etihad journey and that it was “great to have a party for everyone”.
Captain Manfredi Magrome, who frequently spends time abroad as a pilot with Etihad, thanked the company for inviting the family along.
He said the event was a good opportunity to mix family and work.
Friday’s celebrations highlighted the airline’s transformations over the past decade beginning with its first flight to Al Ain in 2003 and its first commercial flight to Beirut that had just 60 passengers, Abdul Qader Hussain, Etihad Airways Vice President International & Government Affairs, told Gulf News.
Hussain, who is the longest serving Emirati employee at Etihad, has been with the airline right from the beginning.
Echoing his colleagues’ sentiments, Hussain said the celebrations were marking the airline’s achievements while also thanking everyone who has helped Etihad along the way.
Looking ahead, Hussain said that Etihad would continue to grow and expand its network. He said that 10 years from now the airline aimed to become the number 1 carrier for international passengers.
Gabriel Ruso, Head of Finance at Etihad Airways, told Gulf News that employee and family day was a great way to bring everyone together. Ruso said that when he joined the airline five years ago it was a young company just about to take off.
He said that the celebrations at Yas Marina Circuit gave them the opportunity to make new friends.
“We are a family,” he said.
Peter Baumgartner, Etihad’s Chief Commercial Officer, said the amount of people at the event showed how big the airline really was.
Looking back from when he joined the airline nine years ago, Baunmagartner said that change had been the only constant.
And Etihad is unlikely to put on the breaks just yet. Baunmagartner said that every year at Etihad had been bigger than the last and there was no reason for that to change in 2014.
Gulf News
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