Etihad has decided to ground it’s entire fleet of 10 Airbus A380s “indefinitely”, as it remodels its fleet around the Boeing 787 and A350-1000, chief executive Tony Douglas has disclosed. Douglas comments that the A380 is “a wonderful product… but they are no longer commercially sustainable. So we have taken the difficult decision to park those machines up indefinitely.” The move follows Air France’s announcement last year that it was permanently ceasing operations by the widebodies, while Lufthansa has indicated the same. Douglas also says the Gulf carrier intends to “exit” its 777-300ER fleet at the end, having already removed its Airbus A330s from service. Cirium’s fleet data shows the carrier has 10 A380s, 22 A330s and nine 777-300ERs in storage, with a further 10 777-300ERs still in operation. The decision is part of Etihad’s strategy of streamlining its long-haul fleet around two key aircraft variants in a bid to cut costs and bolster its efficiencies. “We had got far too diversified when it came to fleet types to be operationally efficient”, comments Douglas. “A big part [of the carrier’s transformation plan] was always to limit the number of diff types we were operating.”<br/>