The outgoing president and chief executive of Etihad Airways Group, James Hogan, said that “the overall mandate” for the business remains the same.

Mr Hogan said that his departure, which was announced on January 24, was “a long-term, planned process which the board and I initiated together”. Both he and chief financial officer James Rigney will depart the business later this year.

“The overall mandate remans the same — to run a safe, best-in-class airline that operates on a sustainable, commercial basis and one which plays an important role in the economic development of Abu Dhabi,” he said.

He added that “the core pillars of our strategy”, which has involved buying stakes in airlines including Alitalia, Jet Airways and Air Berlin, would remain in place with the full support of the group’s board and its shareholder.

He said the group now achieves US$26 billion a year in revenues, and its partnership deals bring 5.5 million passengers per year onto its network.

“We will, however, continue to refine and fine-tune this strategy to react to market conditions and challenges,” said Mr Hogan.

“The current review referenced by our chairman last week is a process we initiated together some months ago, as part of that transitional process. It is our ability to react to market conditions in a smart, flexible manner that has helped us to grow so quickly and successfully over the last 10 years.”

Saj Ahmed, the chief analyst at Strategic Aero Research, said that Mr Hogan “has been a great success in the last decade” at Etihad.

He said that its dual organic and inorganic growth strategy has yielded higher traffic numbers, but that it still faced challenges in turning around loss-making partner airlines like Air Berlin and Alitalia.

“While Mr Hogan will be widely remember for growth, questions will naturally be asked as to whether the stake buying strategy has meant that the airline has perhaps lost sight of its own ambitions while trying to remedy the fortunes of others,” he said.

Mr Hogan and Mr Rigney are both due to join an investment company based in Europe following their departure from Etihad later this year. The pair both joined the group in 2006.

mfahy@thenational.ae