[AMcWhirter]

When Etihad reactivated some of its A380s the thinking was that they would serve only the Abu Dhabi-London route.

But after a short while it was decided to operate them to New York JFK – see our news piece below – and today Etihad has said it would restore A380 service to Paris CDG effective November 1.

Etihad had last served Paris CDG with the super jumbo before the pandemic.

The flights will be:

EY 31 Abu Dhabi-Paris CDG 02:40 – 07:30

EY 32 Paris CDG-Abu Dhabi 09:45 – 19:25

The question now is whether or not Etihad will decide to reactivate another four A380s.

Etihad’s A380 lands in New York

1 user thanked author for this post.

AndrewinHK

[MarkivJ]

So I guess that means 2x to London, 1 each to CDG and JFK. Sounds about reasonable as all 3 are profitable routes for the MEB3.

Overall, it would be good for them to increase capacity or frequency or ANYTHING to keep up with QR and EK. Post Covid, it just feels they’ve really been slow in ramping up and with their barebone network and frequencies across EU and USA (for example: 4 destinations in the USA compared to 10+ for the other 2). Plus, not being an integral part of any alliance must hurt. And whilst I’m sure their prem experience is amazing (I haven’t ever flown by them), QR and EK have fairly good products too – that for their price point, network and freq, people would prefer them

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jacob

[Huitsix]

Thanks for the news.

I assume the A380s used will be the ones currently stored in Tarbes?

Was there just last week and alongside some Air France and Malaysia Airlines A380s, there were some (can’t remember how many but more than 1) from Etihad.

Tarmac is a dismantling/scrapping facility however their primary activity is storage (with Teruel site in Spain).

And alongside the Etihad A380s were the A340-500 which no longer fly – and I don’t expect those to return to the sky, ever (unfortunately).

1 user thanked author for this post.

AMcWhirter

[AMcWhirter]

@Huitsix

Yes I am sure they are. Via X/twitter @MZulqarnainBut1 reports “The airline [Etihad] is also considering reactivating four more A380s to its fleet.

Now the above-named aviation analysist forecast that Etihad’s A380s would return to the fleet months before it happened.

I suppose it depends on whether or not Etihad decides to operate the A380 to Australia or to more US destinations.

——————————————————————————————

@MarkivJ Initially the intention was that Etihad would downsize and not compete on capacity or volume with its Gulf rivals.

I mean the A380s were to be grounded indefinitely and the former CEO said that Etihad’s new focus would be “sustainability.”

But soon after the former CEO stepped down Etihad had a change of tack and the A380s were reactivated.

This Reuters piece from November 2020 talks about “downsizing.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-etihad-airways/etihad-flags-more-cabin-crew-job-cuts-airbus-a380s-grounded-idUSKBN27R1F7/

[sparkyflier]

I am sure if they joined Skyteam this would help them. I would be more likely to fly them if they did.

And if they did start them to Oz that would help them compete more effectively. Seven hours is arguably to short to really enjoy the benefits of the A380 (bar etc).

Interestingly AF is doing very well on their new Abu Dhabi route upping equipment to 77W.

[Olneyflyer]

I wonder if AF have any regrets letting go of their A380’s now the market is growing beyond 2019 pax figures. I suspect that BA with hindsight probably regrets getting rid of some of their refurbished B747’s as well. Parking these aircraft in the desert was perhaps the more prudent approach to take rather than taking a decision which hurts you down the line.

[alainboy56]

@MarkivJ

They are nowhere near what they were until about 2013 or so, and in fact were initially termed a boutique airline, until fully competing with QR and EK.
But they lost their way due to absolutely inane investments and tie ups, started to lose billions p.a. and the ‘Big Boys’ reigned in control and fired the CEO
Now, and I last time used a B789 to Riyadh in economy, and it was cramped with no food, or just a carton box, and I have to say thoroughly underwhelming.
I would put them now on a par with BA, so not much more than 3*, perhaps 3.5* airline, but nothing more.

[alainboy56]

@Olneyflyer
It was very recently brought to my attention that there are still 5 x BA B744s in TERUEL (Spain) and one of them was ‘switched on’ as recently as this January.
Why could BA not bring back these lovely ‘Queens’ into service, they are already paid for, costing them money in storage doing nothing, so make use of them, after all the public, i.e. the fare paying passengers love them.

Alas, these days BA is run by Spanish Bean-Counters, so marketing effect, left field thinking etc does not get expressed or utilized by IAG’s numbskull Board.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Olneyflyer

[LetsFlyNow]

@Sparkyflier

While AF is indeed upgaging to a B77W, these are those planes in a leisure configuration with just 14J,28PE & 430Y seats. That’s compared to the 34J,24PE & 266Y on the A350 they’re currently flying on the route. So i’m assuming that the premium demand is abit lacking but AF is filling more seats in Y.

I truly wonder if BA might pick up some ex-LH or China Southern A380s. I know, wishful thinkful thinking. But the China Southern ones are said to be apparently in good shape.

1 user thanked author for this post.

sparkyflier

[alainboy56]

@LetsFlyNow

The reason the AF airframes have been downgraded is because there is no Biz traffic anymore to AUH.
Why do you think BA had a hiatus ————– the business, and if you will excuse the pun, the Business traffic is just not there.
The boom and massive expansion of the last 50 years has now ceased. Any work that there maybe, is strictly controlled and given to ‘insiders’
I do believe little M. Macron has been coerced, due to relations such as The Louvre Museum, and military contracts, to restart the service which stopped perhaps 15 years ago when AF used to run cramped A319s from CDG as I used it once – an absolutely terrible service.
This also applies to BA, by using some diplomatic ‘top boy to top boy’ arm twisting.
Long since gone are the days when I used to fly Swissair on A310s AUH/RUH/ZRH (sometimes AUH/DXB/ZRH) and change onto a Crossair Genoa connection, and they were joined in those days by daily flights of LH to FRA (& LTU to many airports) KLM to AMS and later (due to tie-ups) by AZ (FCO) and Air Berlin (varied).
Air Finland and Britannia/Thompson used to run regular charters into and through AUH also. Now BA & AF, and this only very recently, are the sole European representatives.
To summarise, I was in a 5* hotel yesterday, one that I frequent quite regularly (as I have employee friends) and asked about the business/occupancy especially with the long Eid break. They said ‘its ‘so/so’ with mainly guests from Russia and ex USSR states such as Tajikistan/Kyrgyzstan ………….’

[Author]

Posts