Etihad bets on premium leisure with return of ‘apartments’ in sky

Etihad Airways brought back its Airbus A380 superjumbos after three years in a bid to attract premium leisure travelers even as concerns emerge on resilience of the post-Covid holiday boom. The Abu Dhabi-based carrier is introducing the double-decker plane on its service to London’s Heathrow Airport, where it will deploy four A380s of its total fleet of 10 this summer. Etihad says it has seen more leisure passengers who previously flew in economy switch to premium since the end of pandemic-era travel curbs. With nine first-class “apartments”, as well as a three-room suite in the sky dubbed The Residence and 70 business-class seats, Etihad can offer more than double the premium seating on the A380 than with the Boeing Co. 787 jets it previously operated on the route. While business travel is still not up to pre-pandemic levels, the carrier is still seeing a surge of demand for premium travel especially on the London-Abu Dhabi route, according to Ed Fotheringham, Etihad’s vice president for Europe and Americas. Abu Dhabi’s Michelin-starred restaurants, five-star hotels and tourist attractions such as Ferrari World are popular draws for well-heeled tourists, Fotheringham said. <br/>