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Passenger levels strong in recent weeks

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Europeans could leverage strong euro to travel to Gulf

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CEO Neves says airline can mitigate any eventual impacts

(Adds details on aircraft delivery, orders and background)

By Federico Maccioni and Jana Choukeir

DUBAI, April 28 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways

is not seeing any effects from the turmoil caused by U.S.

President Donald Trump's tariff policies, its CEO Antonoaldo

Neves told Reuters on Monday, while adding it was too early to

fully gauge the impact of the levies.

Trump's announcement of sweeping tariffs on dozens of U.S.

trading partners this month - and then his pausing of most of

them - created widespread market uncertainty and raised fears of

a global economic downturn.

Neves said Etihad had recorded strong seat occupancy levels

in recent weeks despite the trade tensions, and that the

volatility could even create opportunities in some instances.

He expects more Europeans, for example, to take advantage of

the euro's recent gains against the dollar and the Gulf region's

dollar-pegged currencies to travel.

"It means that the euro now is stronger when you compare it

to the Middle Eastern currency ... So I expect to see more

Europeans coming," Neves said on the sidelines of the Arabian

Travel Market fair in Dubai.

Neves' comments echo Gulf airline Riyadh Air, which said

earlier on Monday that global economic uncertainty had not

reduced demand for travel to the Saudi capital.

If tariff-induced turmoil does impact passenger numbers,

Neves said Etihad, which has a fleet of around 100 aircraft, had

a contingency plan and could rely on its flexibility.

"About 60% of our planes are unencumbered, so they're all

fully paid for. If I get a crisis one day, I park planes ... and

save 75% of the cost," he said.

At a press conference earlier on Monday, Neves said Etihad

planned to add 20 to 22 new planes this year, as it aims to

expand its fleet to more than 170 planes by 2030 and boost Abu

Dhabi's economic diversification strategy.

The UAE's capital is investing heavily in sectors like

tourism to cut its dependence on oil revenues, and in 2023 it

launched a new terminal at Zayed International Airport that

tripled the hub's annual capacity to 45 million passengers.

Etihad, which is owned by Abu Dhabi's $225 billion wealth

fund ADQ, has been through a multi-year restructuring and

management shake-up, but has expanded under Neves.

He said that 10 of this year's new aircraft would be Airbus

A321LRs, which the carrier launched on Monday and will start

operating in August. The remainder include six Airbus A350s and

four Boeing ( BA ) 787s.

Airlines in recent years have been plagued by delayed plane

deliveries as manufacturers like Boeing ( BA ) and Airbus

struggled with the pace of orders in a post-pandemic

travel boom, among other issues.

Neves, who declined to give specifics on the order pipeline,

said he was not happy with the delays but that they were not

compromising the airline's growth plans.

Etihad is always in talks with planemakers, he said, when

asked whether the carrier could be interested in acquiring some

of the dozens of planes that Boeing ( BA ) is looking to resell after

they were locked out of China due to tariffs.