Etihad Widens Swissport Ground-Handling Deal to 40 Airports

Etihad Airways is putting more of its overseas ground operation in the hands of a single supplier. The Abu Dhabi carrier and Swissport signed a memorandum of understanding at Arabian Travel Market on 16 September that increases the number of airports where Swissport serves Etihad from 30 to 40.

The ten additional stations are spread across Africa, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. The companies did not name the airports or put a value on the agreement.

What the deal covers

The MoU covers both passenger ground handling and cargo handling. It also leaves room to extend into airport lounges through Aspire, Swissport’s hospitality brand, which runs 110 lounges worldwide. Both sides described the arrangement as long-term, with a framework for adding more airports and services as Etihad’s network grows.

Swissport, which describes itself as the world’s largest aviation services provider by revenue, said it would bring technology into the relationship, including automation, artificial intelligence and its work on autonomous ground vehicles.

Etihad’s Chief Operations and Guest Officer, Captain Majed Al Marzouqi, said each new destination needs reliable ground service in place before the first flight lands, and that using one partner across 40 airports should give passengers a more consistent experience from Europe to Asia and North America. Swissport President and Chief Executive Warwick Brady said the company’s experience at large, complex hubs would help it keep pace with Etihad’s growth.

Why it matters now

For an airline adding routes quickly, outsourcing to a global handler is a way to open stations without building its own ground teams in each city. Etihad’s own announcements over the past month show how much new flying is planned. The airline is moving to double-daily Abu Dhabi-Sydney flights from 15 December 2026, and it has said its services to Lagos and Accra will start in March 2027, backed by a new interline agreement with Nigeria’s Ibom Air that will carry passengers on to five Nigerian cities.

Etihad framed the agreement in exactly those terms: one handler, one service standard, applied across a growing list of stations rather than negotiated city by city.

Part of a busy ATM for Etihad

The Swissport memorandum was one of a cluster of commercial agreements Etihad announced during Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, held in mid-September this year. In the same week the airline signed a memorandum of co-operation with Uzbekistan’s Tourism Committee, agreed a loyalty partnership between Etihad Guest and Maldivian, and, with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, reported that more than 310,000 visitors have used the Abu Dhabi Stopover programme since its 2024 launch, which is now being extended to Al Ain.