Etihad Airways operates a small fleet of Airbus A380s, as the airline has just five of these aircraft in service. Currently the carrier flies these planes from Abu Dhabi (AUH) to London (LHR) and New York (JFK), and as of November 2024, the airline will fly the plane to Paris (CDG).
Well, Etihad is now quietly adding A380 service to a fourth destination, but only for a limited time.
In this post:
Etihad schedules A380 flights to Jeddah
Between September 1 and October 26, 2024, the Etihad A380 will operate 3x weekly flights between Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Jeddah (JED). The super jumbo jet will operate the following frequencies on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, as flagged by AeroRoutes:
EY311 Abu Dhabi to Jeddah departing 2:10PM arriving 4:10PM
EY312 Jeddah to Abu Dhabi departing 6:40PM arriving 10:25PM
The 1,004-mile flight is blocked at 3hr westbound and 2hr45min eastbound.
Etihad Airways has a ton of buffer in its A380 fleet at the moment, as the plane operates just three daily flights:
- Etihad flies once daily to New York, which requires two planes, but the aircraft has a lot of downtime in Abu Dhabi between the “turn”
- Etihad flies twice daily to London, and each of those frequencies can be operated with a single jet
- Etihad uses one A380 primarily as a spare
So ahead of the new Paris service launching as of November, Etihad can easily make this route work, and could even operate it daily.
This will be the shortest scheduled A380 flight that Etihad ever operated. While rival Emirates flies all kinds of short A380 routes, that comes down to Emirates having a much bigger A380 fleet, which is 100+ aircraft strong.
How is Etihad selling the cabins on this A380 flight?
Etihad’s Airbus A380s are some pretty special jets, and they’ve offered quite a halo effect for the airline. Etihad’s A380s are configured with a total of 485 seats:
- There’s The Residence, which is a three room suite, with a private bedroom and bathroom
- There are nine first class seats, marketed as First Class Apartments
- There are 70 business class seats, marketed as Business Studios
- There are 405 economy seats
With Etihad putting its shortest A380 route on sale, I’m sure I’m not the only one who wondered if this would be an affordable way to fly The Residence? So I had a look at how the airline is currently selling the flight.
As it stands, Etihad is only selling business class and economy. There’s no option to book first class, and no option to book The Residence. Furthermore, at least as of now, there’s no opportunity for business class passengers to assign seats in first class.
I’m guessing Etihad isn’t selling first class and above in the event that there are aircraft swaps, and the airline just doesn’t think it’s worth pricing it in this market, given that we’re just talking about a couple of dozen total flights in each direction.
However, maybe some lucky business class passengers will be assigned first class seats… who knows!
Bottom line
In September and October 2024, Etihad will be flying the A380 to Jeddah 3x weekly. The airline only has a handful of A380s that just fly to London and New York, so this is a short route on which you can fly Etihad’s whale jet. However, unfortunately The Residence and first class aren’t bookable.
What do you make of Etihad flying the A380 to Jeddah?
Poorly researched - 4 aircraft active and the 5th only returned from long-term storage @ Teruel on June 14th.
any idea what this is for? Hajj is over?
To celebrate Saudi's national day which falls on September 23.
OK but who is the target consumer for that?
Thanks for explaining. Intriguing that there are presumably so many people flying for Saudi’s national day. Seems like it must be a big thing as EK also raised frequencies this time last year
https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-increases-flights-to-riyadh-for-saudi-national-day/
The period where Etihad is scheduling the A380 is also a peak time for Umrah. Thr weather in Saudi Arabia is better around that time of year, which is why it's a more popular time. That likely also explains why EY isn't selling First Class or the Residence (since the demand likely isn't there to the point where it would be profitable for the airline vs. the costs).