RIO DE JANEIRO: Etihad Airways is ordering ​more ⁠widebody planes as the Middle ‌East carrier expects to be flying about ​8% more than a year ago ​by June ​15, CEO Antonoaldo Neves said in an interview.

He said on ⁠the sidelines of a global gathering of airline CEOs in Brazil on Saturday that the ​Abu ‌Dhabi carrier ⁠is buying widebody ⁠planes in the double digits, declining ​to specify further.

Etihad is ‌restoring flights after ⁠making cuts in March as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran turned regional, raising fuel prices, Neves said.

He said Etihad does not plan to trim costs by cutting flights at the moment.

"The ‌biggest cost we have is ⁠an empty plane," he ​said. "So the way I cut cost is I don't have ​empty planes."

(Reporting ‌By Allison Lampert ⁠in Rio de ​Janeiro; Editing by William Mallard)