“Etihad only had 4 planes when I joined, but over 130 when I left, of which I am personally responsible for!”
In this final chapter of my Etihad saga, between 2010 and 2017, I moved to Malta, then back to Abu Dhabi, and finally finished in Toulouse once more. Over the course of these seven years, I personally oversaw the delivery of 81 aircraft!
As previously mentioned in the last blog, I had to leave France due to a tax issue. Luckily, Etihad had a fresh assignment for me in Malta! So, once our furniture set sail in a container, my wife and I flew to Valletta, Malta, via London. Once we were there and settled, we tracked our furniture container, and to our surprise, it was sitting only a few miles away in the Valletta docks! What were the odds!?
My assignment in Malta had me overseeing the installation of the new first-class seats; this took almost all of 2010, but in between this project, I would frequently fly to Toulouse and Hamburg for aircraft deliveries now that my tax issue in France had finally been resolved!
A personal project my wife and I had to undertake was finding another place to live back in Abu Dhabi, where we were being relocated once the seat installation in Malta was complete. Some of the properties we were shown were unacceptable due to location and the amount of sand that came through the windows! But we eventually found a lovely apartment in downtown Abu Dhabi, and once we had confirmation that our furniture had arrived in the UAE, we moved in. We stayed here for 2 years, where I worked in the city as well as flying numerous times to Seattle, Toulouse, and Hamburg for deliveries. My wife would join me on the Seattle runs and then spend her time either in Abu Dhabi working or in Scotland to see her family.
After those two years, we moved for the final time in the UAE to a duplex in Hamdan Street.
From 2012 to 2015, I delivered many aircraft for Etihad, flying numerous trips to Europe and the US. In 2013, I delivered two 777 freighters from Seattle; in 2014, Etihad gained two A380s, with more to follow, and their first 787 at the end of that year. During this time, I had a couple of interesting adventures in Seattle, one where a manifest error nearly landed me in serious trouble with the Secret Service and the other, slightly more pleasant where Boeing customer services treated us to a weekend that involved, amongst many things, the world-famous tugboat race! To my recollection, this was probably the busiest time in my entire career, so many flights, so many deliveries and endless moving parts, it came as a massive relief when Etihad HQ requested that I return to France for a final time. Thankfully, Etihad had arranged for all our furniture to be moved, AGAIN. All I had to do was find the property to put it all in! This one had nothing to do with my original French landlord or his son, but it was back in Tournefeuille, which we were thrilled about as we knew the village so well. The owners of our final French house were moving to take up a job on the island of Guadeloupe, where the TV series, Death in Paradise, is filmed.
During this last stint in Toulouse, I delivered the remaining A380s to the Etihad fleet. This brings us to 2017, when I decided to finally retire from Etihad Airways. Seeing as I was four years over the normal retirement age, the company were inclined to agree. Just before I left, my son and his in-laws came over for an amazing holiday, which we treated as our unofficial leaving do. So, once more, to depart France, I had to acquire three quotes from three different moving companies. I found one that they approved of and, as a bonus, came highly recommended by Airbus. I was given a time limit again, fortunately, this was a lot longer than 10 days! We had to have everything packed and shipped by April 2017 as my final delivery from Hamburg was in May 2017. Everything got shipped in time, and I flew back to Abu Dhabi from Hamburg on my final delivery flight for Etihad, where I completed my exit interviews and eagerly handed back my work laptop and BlackBerry, which I never wanted to see again for the rest of my life!
I worked for Etihad for just over 12 years and lived in Abu Dhabi, Toulouse & Malta. I can honestly say it was a magnificent time in my career. I’m immensely proud of the work my colleagues and I achieved, especially when I look back and remember that Etihad only had 4 planes when I joined, but over 130 when I left, of which I am personally responsible for! I left for home on 31st May 2017, where I took my years of experience in Aviation and started my own consultant company – Dalriada Aerospace. I was also given another side-project, which turned out to be my favourite job of all: becoming a grandfather!
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