Etihad to ground A380s ‘indefinitely’
By Cirium22 April 2021
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.
Speaking during
the World Aviation Festival on 22 April, 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.”
Source: Etihad
Airways
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.”
This will see the
Boeing 787 maintained as the “backbone” of Etihad’s fleet, “for the medium
term”. The carrier has 40 of the aircraft in service and around 30 more on
order.
The benefits of
the 787 are not only its economics, he continues, but its sustainability value,
given its relatively low fuel burn.
Cirium’s data
shows the carrier also has five A350-1000s in service and a further 15 on
order, with the aircraft type set to form a key role in Etihad’s future
fleet plans.
Douglas comments
that the company’s strategy going forward its to remain focussed on its hub
model, which pre-pandemic accounted for nearly three quarters of its
passengers. “We assume that will return,” he says, “probably with slightly
stronger point-to-point [traffic] as we start off.”
He adds that although in the past
the carrier’s mantra was the “big is beautiful”, the changes reflect the
carrier’s transformation into a mid-sized, full-service airline that is
“obsessive about customer service” and focussed on sustainability.
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