Etihad Airways

Is Etihad Airways safe?

Yes. Etihad, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates based in Abu Dhabi, has not had a fatal accident or written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary an aircraft since it started flying in 2003. It flies modern widebodies under a regulator with FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary status. We score it 87, level with Qatar Airways and above Emirates, whose 2016 Dubai crash weighs on its record.

Two things hold Etihad back from the 90s: a handful of turbulence injuries and procedural incidents, and the 2026 Iran war, which shut its hub and brought a deadly drone attack to Abu Dhabi's airport.

What is in Etihad's accident record?

The Aviation Safety Network database lists no crash, fatal event or hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary for Etihad itself. Its recorded accidents are all turbulence events:

• October 2011: a Boeing 777-300ER from Manila hit severe turbulence over the Bay of Bengal.
• May 2016, EY474: an A330 from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta hit turbulence near the Bangka Islands in Indonesia, and passengers and crew were hurt.
• May 2022, EY241: a Boeing 787-9 on descent near Lahore flew into turbulence near a storm cell; a cabin crew member was seriously injured and ten other people had minor injuries.

One write-off carried Etihad's name: a Saab 2000 flying as Etihad Regional landed so hard at Paris Charles de Gaulle in January 2014 that it was scrapped. That aircraft and its crew belonged to Darwin Airline, a Swiss company with its own operating certificate, so we do not count it here.

Incidents worth knowing about

The most instructive event is a low approach at home. On 6 June 2020, a Boeing 787-10 descended below the vertical approach path into Abu Dhabi. The UAE's Air Accident Investigation Sector found that the crew had set the wrong local pressure on the altimeter, so the aircraft was lower than the instruments showed. Its final report came out in September 2021.

On 20 June 2019, an Etihad A320 touched down right of the centreline in heavy rain at Calicut in India, after an earlier go-around, and hit five runway edge lights. Investigators first classed it as a serious incident, then downgraded it to an incident.

We found no fine, grounding or enforcement action against Etihad on safety grounds. The UAE investigators publish their final reports online, so these events are well documented.

How modern is Etihad's fleet?

Etihad said it ended 2025 with an operating fleet of 127 aircraft after adding 29 that year, the most in a single year in its history. Its widebodies are Boeing 787s, Boeing 777s, Airbus A350-1000s and A380s, and A320-family jets fly the shorter routes. All are current-generation types. The A380s and the 777-300ERs are the oldest aircraft. After a long pandemic lay-up, the last stored A380 flew back to Abu Dhabi on 17 September 2026 for heavy maintenance before returning to service (AeroTime). The airline does not publish an average fleet age in the material we could open.

The Iran war and Abu Dhabi

When the US and Israel struck Iran on 28 February 2026, the UAE closed its airspace. A NOTAM partly reopened it on 2 March, and Etihad restarted that afternoon with an A380 to London Heathrow, while Dubai's airports stayed closed. Early on 1 March, Abu Dhabi Airports said it was responding to a drone attack at Zayed International Airport, Etihad's base; one person died and seven were injured. The GCAA lifted its war-time restrictions in early May, and in September Etihad said it was running 320 flights a day.

That is why the operating environment scores 70. Outside the Gulf, Etihad's network is mostly big, well-equipped airports in Europe, Asia and North America, with some demanding ones in South Asia.

Flying Etihad: practical points

• Check the Etihad travel updates page before you leave. If Gulf tension flares again, airspace can close within hours, and Etihad will cancel rather than fly.
• Keep your seat belt on when seated. Every recorded Etihad accident has been a turbulence injury.
• Look at the operator on codeshare tickets. Flights sold with an EY number may be flown by partner airlines with their own records.

How we scored it

No fatal accident or hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary (accident record 93), a strong regulator with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary (90) and a modern fleet (86) carry the score. The 2020 altimeter-setting incident and turbulence injuries (incidents 80) and the war around Abu Dhabi (environment 70) pull it down. For a low-cost alternative from the same airport, see Air Arabia.