If and when the travel world gets back to some kind of normal, Etihad Airways will be in a prime position.

TravelPulse Canada sat down virtually last week with Duncan Bureau, the Senior Vice President Sales and Distribution at Etihad, to talk about how the airline is doing and how he’s adapted to living in Abu Dhabi after his long career in Canada.

“It’s a really beautiful place,” he said. “In the UAE everything is the best of the best; the best hotels, the best restaurants.

“It’s been a learning experience. Certainly coming here and barely getting my feet wet before COVID hit wasn’t what I had planned,” he said with a laugh.

Still, Bureau is managing to find silver linings in the COVID-19 cloud.

“One of the things that came out of this is that when we put our airplanes on the ground, we took an opportunity to completely refurbish and refresh them. We put 140,000 hours man-hours into the fleet. We already had one of the best products in the world, and the maintenance team has done an incredible job.

“Everybody getting on board our aircraft talks about how fresh and clean they are. Even our crew are talking about it.

“We have one of the best products in the world and we’ve made it even better.”

Bureau said Etihad has been busy flying cargo and also performing repatriation and humanitarian flights. Some of those flights have gone in and out of places that aren’t even on the airlines’ route map, including Israel and Cuba.

“We’ll be operating just north of 50% of our network (they have 109 planes) in September,” he said. “We have one of the youngest fleets in the world and one of the most capable.”

Bureau said Etihad is still flying to Toronto, New York and Chicago, albeit not on the usual daily basis.

Etihad started a transformation process several years ago so they’d be better able to withstand a storm. Some airlines have gone bankrupt during the coronavirus, but Bureau said the changes they made gave Etihad a cost structure that allows them to keep going.

One major project Etihad is working on is an eco program with Boeing, which will allow the airline to reduce its carbon footprint and also reduce aircraft noise. Of course, the main concern for many travellers today is health and safety, and Etihad has been out front on that issue as well.

“We’ve taken a leadership position here and we’ve launched a Wellness Ambassador program, where we’ve trained every single one of our crew in being a Wellness Ambassador. Really the job of the ambassador is to ensure that our crew is operating safely,” such as ensuring proper use of personal protective equipment.

“Our wellness program begins at the time you book your ticket,” Bureau explained. “We have Wellness Ambassadors working at our call centre and at the airport, and of course on board the aircraft. We want our customers to visibly see the Wellness Ambassadors and understand they can ask any questions they want.”

They also have a designated area on plane we can use to isolate a passenger if someone is feeling ill or showing symptoms.

“It’s really important that our employees feel they have a safe place to work and it’s very important that our passengers when they board the aircraft can visibly see what we’ve done in order to ensure we’ve done everything we can to create an environment where it’s safe to travel.”

With a young fleet of planes, Etihad has all the latest technology, including HEPA air filters that exchange the air every three minutes and trap 99% of all particulates in the air.

“There’s probably healthier air on our airplanes than in your home,” he said.

Etihad, which is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, isn’t blocking off middle seats, but they have capped airline capacity to create more space around passengers, who are asked to wear masks on board.

Bureau said the Abu Dhabi airport is a global leader in technology and has features such as retina display screens so passengers can check in without coming in contact with machines.

“From the way they’ve set up camera to how they screen passengers, the health and wellness environment is frankly second to none.”

The coronavirus has been a huge adjustment for everyone in the travel world, and Bureau is no exception.

“I haven’t been on a plane since February. That might be the longest time in my life” without taking a flight.

Some travel experts have suggested a recovery could come fairly soon, while others are looking at a five or even six-year period.

Asked where he stands on the matter, Bureau laughed.

“All I can say is that I’m 100% confident every forecast is wrong. But we’re probably in the middle when it comes to optimism. Are we expecting full 2019 numbers next year? No. But we think that in 2021/2022 we’ll start to see some meaningful recovery in the market.”

The Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism has been working hard and tourism is starting open up, Bureau said. “Ferrari World is open. Yas (Island) is open, and we want people to explore them safely.”

“We all want to travel, we all want to see our families, we all want to see the world’s great tourism assets. I talk a lot on social media about how it’s time to explore the world again and I strongly feel that way as well.”

Bureau said he understands the UAE government has, on a per capita basis, tested more of its citizens for coronavirus than any country on earth.

“I think it’s close to 60% of the population that’s been tested. They’re also doing vaccine trials. The health care system here really is world class.”

The former WestJet and Air Canada executive said there are something like nine and-a-half million people in the UAE. Only 1.1 or 1.2 million of those are Emiratis; the rest are expats.

“There’s more than 40,000 Canadians here. There are Tim Hortons all over the place. There are tremendous restaurants, tremendous tourism assets. The people are very warm and welcoming. There are great hotels, great coffee shops. There’s really nothing in Canada that I can’t get here.”

Some days it's a little warm for more than nine holes of golf, but Bureau said Abu Dhabi’s hospitality industry is second to none.

“Ferrari World is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve seen, and The Louvre here is an incredible structure. The service levels are fantastic, and the culture is very open in terms of being forward thinking and innovative. There are great universities and great schools.

“It really is a cool place to live.”