Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) is set to join the ranks of airlines retiring its fleet of A380-800s due to the COVID-19 pandemic as it now considers it very unlikely that they would ever return to service.
"We have now taken the strategic decision to park the A380s. I'm sure it's very likely that we won't see them operating with Etihad again," Etihad Aviation Group Chief Executive Tony Douglas told The National newspaper.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, the airline operates ten A380-800s, which are 5.6 years old on average (the second-youngest in the world, behind ANA - All Nippon Airways) and are all owned by the carrier. They were all retired from revenue service in March 2020, as the global pandemic hit. Since then, four have been ferried to Lourdes/Tarbes for storage, while the remaining six aircraft remain at Abu Dhabi International airport.
Out of the fifteen original A380 operators, Hi Fly Malta, Lufthansa, and Air France have already retired all of their respective fleets of the type. Multiple other operators have put all of their A380s in long-term storage. Currently, only Emirates, China Southern Airlines, and Korean Air use their A380s.
Douglas underlined that Etihad, which was already restructuring before the pandemic, was poised to abandon its previous grandiose plans and remain a middle-sized carrier.
As such, Etihad's long-haul fleet will remain based on the B787s, Douglas clarified, of which it currently operates thirty B787-9s and nine B787-10s with a further 11 and 21 units on firm order, respectively. The airline's widebody fleet also comprises seven A330-200s, three A330-300s, five A350-1000s, and nineteen B777-300(ER)s. Besides the B787s, only a part of the B777-300(ER) fleet is currently active, with the remainder of the widebody types parked.
Douglas underlined that Etihad was not intent on future deliveries, including eight B777-8s and seventeen B777-9s.
"When you're in a street fight with COVID, it's almost irrelevant because the deliveries are way out in the future anyway. The trick to this one is to focus on 2021-2022, that journey is a B787 Dreamliner journey," he said.
He added that the deliveries of the B777Xs were particularly uncertain since they had been impacted not only by the carrier's prospects but also by manufacturing and certification delays at Boeing (BOE, Washington National). On top of the Boeing widebodies, Etihad Airways also has outstanding firm orders for fifteen more A350-1000s.
Douglas warned that Etihad would most likely need to lay off more staff this year after cutting its workforce by a third in 2020. He underlined that the scale of the cuts in 2021 would be much smaller than last year.
