Etihad gets new CEO; all you need to know about Antonoaldo Neves

Antonoaldo Neves (Image: www.airlines.iata.org)

Brazilian Antonoaldo Neves has been named the new CEO of the Abu Dhabi-headquartered Etihad Airways. Neves replaced British Tony Douglas after the emirate's government transferred Etihad's ownership to wealth fund ADQ.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Neves, born in Salvador, the capital of Brazil’s Bahia state, holds a civil degree in engineering from the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, an MBA from the Darden School of Business of the University of Virginia and a master's degree in corporate finance from IAG PUC-RIO School of Business, Rio de Janeiro.

Etihad’s new leader is a person who had run Brazilian carrier Azul Linhas Aéreas, Portugal’s state-owned airline TAP Air Portugal, and digital travel agency Ōner Travel. Prior to these stints, Neves worked for 14 years as a partner at consulting giant McKinsey.

He started his career in the airline industry with Brazil’s Azul Linhas Aéreas in 2004. He was also on the board of the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company Infraero between 2011 and 2012, and was corporate director of Cyrela Brazil Realty.

Neves led TAP, which has its hub in Lisbon, between 2017 and 2020, as CEO. In his nearly three years at the Portuguese airline, he was responsible for exploring routes from Europe to Africa and the Americas. During his term, the airline had a fleet of 100 planes flying to 92 destinations in 35 countries. He was involved in a significant fleet-renovation process at the carrier, and also oversaw the modernisation of the airline as a whole.

Neves left TAP Air Portugal to establish Ōner Travel, which he launched in November 2020. It was originally named P2D, a digital travel agency startup that allows social media users to sell trips. The company developed a dedicated platform to sell tickets and hotels through partners who use social networks (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and WhatsApp) as a priority channel.