Since last year when the A380 clearance was given by Indian authorities, there has been a flurry of operators to bring their A380s to India. Singapore Airlines was the first to go, followed by Emirates, and Lufthansa had to back off in Mumbai due to slot constraints. Why would airlines want to bring their A380s to India? Well, not just a matter of prestige, since India is one of the most voluminous markets for most of the Middle-East carriers for westward travel, and the A380 is the best way to put out their best product and uplift the most number of passengers in slot constrained airports such as Mumbai.
Anyhow, how could Etihad be left far behind in their desire to flaunt their best product in India. While initially Etihad had put out information that they were only going to fly their A380s to Australia, UK and the USA, they are now bringing it to India too.
The Etihad A380 will start flying between Abu Dhabi and Mumbai from May 1, 2016, replacing the flight operated by a Jet Airways’ plane. The Etihad A380 has the new Etihad products including their flagship Apartments & the Residences.
Here is the new schedule that was just loaded up in the GDS, via AirlineRoute.net:
The A380 will be operating EY204/203 flight.
EY212 AUH0310 – 0825BOM 320 D
EY204 AUH1410 – 1920BOM 388 D
EY206 AUH2135 – 0250+1BOM 77L DEY205 BOM0420 – 0610AUH 77L D
EY213 BOM1020 – 1210AUH 320 D
EY203 BOM2135 – 2325AUH 388 D
To be fair, Etihad has come a long way, from operating their worse product in India, to bringing in their best game here! I remember flying an Etihad A320 to AUH a few years back to go onwards to bringing their best product over.
The Etihad A380 times well with the New York JFK flight arriving into Abu Dhabi as a connection, and is the market that Etihad is intending to serve for sure!
How many of you will line up to try the Etihad A380?
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A few years back an all economy A380 with 840 seats was mooted. I can imagine some Indian LCC wanting to fly that. Would be fun to see 840 people board a plane in India 🙂