Etihad’s CEO has gone on the record as saying that Etihad has one shareholder [Abu Dhabi] and is government owned.

While neither of those facts qualify as a violation of the Open Skies agreement, the $17 billion+ that Etihad has received from Abu Dhabi over the past 10 years clearly does.

The World Trade Organization has very clear definitions of what constitutes a subsidy. These definitions help to understand the scope of support Etihad has, and still is, receiving from the government of Abu Dhabi.