Etihad Airways Insiders Describe A Deeply Toxic Management Culture

Recently I wrote about how Etihad Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer, Arik De, suddenly left the airline. This is the same guy who a couple of years back was accused by another airline executive of running a fake LinkedIn account for the sole purpose of complimenting himself.

Following my publishing of that story, I’ve messaged with a countless number of current and former Etihad management employees, and even talked to three of them by phone. Little did I know the extent to which this was all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the toxicity that’s apparently rampant at Etihad management.

If I can use my platform to in any way contribute to positive change here, I’d consider that to be worthwhile, because I think this deserves some attention. It’s clear that something needs to change, and I can’t help but wonder if the Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), which owns Etihad, is aware of this…

I can’t believe what I’m hearing from Etihad management employees

Let me start by suggesting that everyone check out the comments on my post about Arik De’s departure from Etihad. As always, I invited people to sound off in the comments section.

Look, I’ve been covering the airline industry for 18 years, and of course I expect that people will have negative things to say about management at any airline, when given the opportunity, especially anonymously.

But in all my years of covering airlines, I’ve never heard such a deeply negative impression of the current senior management team, and that’s saying a lot. Let me add that I’m not just going off of the anonymous left by people. In the past three days, I’ve messaged with over a dozen current and former Etihad employees, and even talked to three of them by phone. I’m in disbelief at what I’ve heard, and it goes way beyond what I could’ve expected.

Of course there are a lot of incredible, hard working people at Etihad, who try their best. Those people deserve better, and those aren’t the people we’re talking about. Instead, it seems there are some number of very senior figures who have just shown complete disregard for the dignity of employees. And they’ve then surrounded themselves with henchman who will do whatever they say, and normalize their behavior.

It’s just disgusting to me. For example, American Airlines is a pretty “broken” airline (or at least was for some number of years), and if you talked to employees there, they’d maybe tell you it was demotivating and just downright sad, but I’ve never heard such a volume of people make claims that things were even a small fraction as bad as what I’m hearing about Etihad.

I’m sure someone will ask “well what do you expect in the Middle East?” I think it’s important to keep in mind that most of Etihad’s senior management team consists of ex-pats, led by CEO Antonoaldo Neves, who joined the airline in 2022, after leaving TAP Air Portugal.

Let me also add this. Under previous Etihad CEO Tony Douglas (who is now the CEO of Riyadh Air), the culture absolutely was not like this, based on everything I’ve heard. And while the CEO before that, James Hogan, ran a bit of a clown show, I also didn’t hear of this level of toxicity. The extent of how bad things have become seems to be specific to the current management team.

Arik De seems to be a big problem, but not the only problem

Arik De is really quite the guy, in terms of his ability to spin things. In his LinkedIn post about leaving the airline, he posted a picture of himself with over 100 Etihad employees in the background, and a huge cake. You’d think they threw him a huge farewell party, and were sad to see him go.

That’s quite a contrast to the reality of what happened, which is that he walked off the property with a tote bag, to no fanfare. What’s also pretty telling is that of the nearly 100 comments so far on his LinkedIn post about leaving the airline, I count only three Etihad employees who had something to say.

Two seem to be frontline employees, who are probably just wishing a senior executive farewell. One is an attractive former flight attendant who now works in management. Wow, I’ll need to think hard about connecting those dots, and who might’ve given him that opportunity. Meanwhile the roughly 10 people he tags at Etihad to compliment didn’t even react to his story with a comment.

Side note — maybe I am too principled, but can I just say how dismaying I find it when people flatter certain people because they are nice *to them*, while completely ignoring how they treat others. Personally, I don’t care if someone is nice to me or not, I care about how they act toward others. Eons ago, when I would go on a first date, the thing I’d most pay attention to is how someone treats others, like servers in restaurants. That shows someone’s true character. So if you’re just going to flatter the heck out of someone because they’re nice to you, that doesn’t speak very highly of you either.

Based on my conversations with people in the know:

• De is one of a few Etihad executives who seems to be almost universally disliked, and has a record of creating a toxic environment
• I’ll be honest, I don’t feel comfortable making an assessment on Neves, and I don’t know what to think — the fact that he has sat by and allowed this all to happen the way it has doesn’t speak highly of him, because at best, he’s not paying attention, or at worst, he’s part of the problem

I feel very confident when I say that morale at Etihad management is about as low as it has ever been. I think it’s time for Neves to either step up to the plate and show if he can be a leader and create a positive environment, or if this is what he’s fine with, then I think the company’s owners need to take note.

It’s one thing to entrust a state owned airline with foreign ex-pats who can provide their expertise to elevate an airline. But when they start to run it in the ways that have been described to me, I can’t help but be shocked at the lack of oversight.

Bottom line

Etihad has a lot of amazing employees, including many people in management, and they deserve to work at an airline where their contributions are respected, and where they’re treated with dignity. Based on everything I’ve heard, that’s not the current reality, the shift has been in recent years, and there are a few people who are most responsible for this, and they’ve aligned themselves with a sufficient number of people so that this behavior is tolerated.

One of them has now left, and while I never respected the guy, the reality we’re learning about management under his leadership is even worse than I could’ve imagined. But it’s also clear he was far from the only person causing issues at the airline.

I’m still not 100% sure if Neves is a good guy who has simply surrounded himself with bad people and allowed them to let things get out of control, or if he’s part of the problem. Either way, something needs to change.

In case it’s not obvious, let me just close by saying the following — I’ve generally been positive about Etihad, I appreciate their investments in passenger experience, etc. I’m not someone with any sort of an axe to grind with the company. I just know when I see something really bad, and I’m not afraid to speak out, because the hardworking people who keep the airline running don’t deserve this.

What do you make of this Etihad management situation?