Etihad Airways has launched an A380 service on its Abu-Dhabi-Sydney route.
The inaugural flight departed Abu Dhabi International airport at 10pm (local time) last night and touched down at Sydney Kingsford Smith airport earlier today. Return service EY455 will leave Sydney at 2125 tonight, landing in Abu Dhabi at 0615 tomorrow.
The A380 will now operate one of the airline’s two daily services between Sydney and Abu Dhabi. The airline’s additional four-weekly A340 flights will be upgraded to a B777-300 aircraft.
The new service and upgrade will increase the total number of two-way seats on the route by 30 per cent to 9,568 seats a week.
Flight No. | Origin | Departs | Destination | Arrives | Frequency | Aircraft |
EY454 | Abu Dhabi (AUH) | 22:00 | Sydney (SYD) | 17:55+1 | Daily | A380 |
EY455 | Sydney (SYD) | 21:25 | Abu Dhabi (AUH) | 06:15+1 | Daily | A380 |
EY450 | Abu Dhabi (AUH) | 10:25 | Sydney (SYD) | 06:30+1 | Sun, Tue, Thu, Sat | B777-300ER |
EY451 | Sydney (SYD) | 14:15 | Abu Dhabi (AUH) | 23:05 | Sun, Mon, Wed, Fri | B777-300ER |
EY6450* | Abu Dhabi (AUH) | 10:35 | Sydney (SYD) | 06:25 | Mon, Wed, Fri | B777-300ER |
EY6451* | Sydney (SYD) | 15:15 | Abu Dhabi (AUH) | 23:45 | Tue, Thu, Sat | B777-300ER |
Sydney schedule: EY6450/6451 are operated by Virgin Australia
The airline currently flies the superjumbo twice daily to London Heathrow. A third daily A380 service to LHR is due in August, and a service to New York JFK in December.
Etihad CEO James Hogan said: "The A380 out of Sydney connects seamlessly at the Abu Dhabi hub to the A380 to London, offering our London-bound guests the comfort and convenience of an all-A380 service all the way."
He added: "In 2014, we achieved an 88 per cent seat load factor on our Sydney route. The A380 will provide us with much-needed additional capacity, particularly in business class, where we consistently enjoy high levels of demand for our services.
"This capacity increase is particularly good news for our premium guests and for high-end leisure and business tourism at both ends of the Sydney-London route.”
Etihad will codeshare on the new A380 services with Virgin Australia. It already adds its EY code on Virgin Australia flights from Sydney to Adelaide, Albury, Auckland, Ayers Rock (Uluru), Ballina, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Christchurch, Coffs Harbour, Darwin, Gold Coast, Hamilton Island, Hervey Bay, Hobart, Launceston, Mackay, Melbourne, Perth, Port Macquarie, Queenstown, Sunshine Coast, Tamworth and Townsville.
The A380 features The Residence by Etihad – the airline’s private three-room suite with a living room, ensuite shower room, bedroom and dedicated butler, and nine First Apartments, each featuring a reclining lounge chair and an ottoman and opens up to become a separate 80.5-inch fully-flat bed. It also has 70 business class seats and 417 economy seats.
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