Return of the Etihad A380!
On 9 December 2022, Etihad Airways officially announced it will return the A380 back to service. The plan is to utilise the type as of the summer season next year, exclusively on the Abu Dhabi to London-Heathrow route. The airline is flying into Heathrow four times a day and all these flights will be flown by the A380, freeing up Airbus A350s and Boeing B787s for increasing frequencies to other destinations as well as opening new routes.
Etihad Airways once had ten A380s in the fleet. It is unclear which of those will return and the airline has started preparations for it by recruiting and training additional staff.
The status of the ten Etihad Airways A380s is currently as follows:
A6-APA (166), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 5 November 2020
A6-APB (170), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 3 December 2020
A6-APC (176), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 16 December 2020
A6-APD (180), stored at Teruel since 11 May 2021
A6-APE (191), stored at Teruel since 15 June 2021
A6-APF (195), stored at Teruel since 28 May 2021
A6-APG (198), stored at Teruel since 19 April 2021
A6-APH (199), stored at Teruel since 23 June 2021
A6-API (233), stored at Tarbes-Lourdes since 26 January 2021
A6-APJ (237), stored at Teruel since 26 April 2021
Etihad Airways will be the eighth airline to be flying the A380 (again), following in the footsteps of All Nippon Airways, Asiana Airlines, British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Qatar Airways.
Photo by Anton Homma.