Etihad is celebrating the return of Aussie travel and the 15th birthday of its loyalty program in the country by giving away 100 all-expenses-paid trips to Abu Dhabi!

The airline’s loyalty program, Etihad Guest, has launched a new campaign called the BIG Australian Celebration, with a specially-chartered flight on a 787 Dreamliner set to whisk 100 lucky winners and their plus ones away on 2 April 2022 to enjoy the trip of a lifetime in Etihad’s home.

“It’s been 20 very long months of waiting, wishing and wondering, and we are incredibly excited to finally be celebrating the opening of international borders, alongside a huge milestone – our 15th year anniversary of flying to Australia,” Sarah Built, general manager of Etihad Airways ANZ said.

“Since first touching down in Australia in 2007, we are proud to have welcomed more than 9.5 million passengers across our Australian routes to Abu Dhabi, and are excited to be doing something unprecedented to connect once again.”

Lucky families will also be gifted the ultimate reunion, with Etihad Guest to fly in their far-flung loved ones to Abu Dhabi from destinations across its network, including the UK, Europe and North America.

From long-awaited first meetings with babies only seen over FaceTime to long-distance partners, all Etihad Guest members need to do to be in with a chance to win is share their story HERE. 

Entrants to The BIG Australian Celebration will have the chance to win return flights, four days of premium accommodation, alongside experiences to see the incredible sights of the cultural hotspot and explore the things travellers have missed after so long away. All members who enter will also receive 1,000 Etihad Guest bonus Miles.

Open until 8 March, winners will be announced via phone on 14 March.

For more information and to enter, go HERE.

The campaign came as Etihad released its 2021 financial results, recording a strong recovery in passenger operations along with a significant improvement in financial performance, posting a much-reduced loss of US$ 476 million ($652,450,820) for 2021 (2020: US$ 1.70 billion, AUD $2,329,804,100).

The airline carried 3.5 million passengers in 2021, with an average seat load factor of 39.6 per cent. Passenger loads doubled in the second half of the year, reaching 70.1 per cent in December as travel demand peaked during the winter holiday period.

The airline recorded a particularly strong surge in passenger volumes in Q4 following the September relaxation of mandatory quarantine periods in Abu Dhabi.

Etihad Airways posted passenger revenues of US$ 1.07 billion ($1,466,406,110) in 2021, down by 14 per cent year-on-year.

While ongoing travel restrictions and new variants of the virus dampened demand, the airline saw passenger revenues bounce back in the last quarter of the year, recovering to 50 per cent of 2019 levels in December.

Etihad Mangrove Forest

In other Etihad news, the airline has collaborated with Environment Agency Abu Dhabi to launch the Etihad Mangrove Forest to provide guests, corporate accounts and partners the ability to adopt mangroves in Abu Dhabi to reduce their carbon footprint.

The Etihad Mangrove Forest is the result of multiple joint programmes between Etihad, Environment Agency Abu Dhabi, Jubail Island, The Storey Group and other partners to support mangrove conservation projects in the nation and develop new carbon sinks and natural resources to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Using a digital platform, the Etihad Mangrove Forest will allow guests and partners to invest in carbon removal for AED 18.5 ($7) per mangrove, where the individual trees can be tracked online or through an app.

The guest receives a unique tree code, geolocation, and virtual access to their tree for the next 10 years.

Globally, mangroves store approximately 6.4billion tonnes of carbon, almost four times more than other terrestrial forests.

At a rate of just more than 12kg a year, the average mangrove captures over 300kgs of CO2 in its 25-year lifetime, helping to fight the effects of climate change such as coral bleaching and coastline degradation, and support biodiversity and wildlife.