Etihad Airways has reaffirmed its commitment to start its Airbus A380 and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operations in December 2014.
The Gulf carrier has added more flights for sale this week, and announced that an extensive pilot training program for both aircraft models is now underway.
As previously reported by Business Traveller (see here), the A380 will debut on Etihad Airway’s daily flights between its base in Abu Dhabi and London. It has also now been confirmed that the superjumbo will be deployed onto selected flights to Sydney.
All cabin products on the A380 will be brand new, with the highlight being the introduction of The Residence by Etihad – a three-bedroom cabin in the sky available exclusively on the superjumbo.
“On existing high demand routes such as London and Sydney, the A380 will provide additional seats and meet demand for increased capacity, especially in first and business class,” said James Hogan, president and chief executive of Etihad Airways.
Meanwhile, the Boeing 787-9 will be introduced on flights to six destinations, namely Düsseldorf, Doha, Washington DC, Mumbai, Brisbane and Moscow. Flights will be operated between December 2014 and June 2015, although this could be extended indefinitely.
For more information, visit etihad.com
Clement Huang
