What makes Etihad’s offering so appealing to luxury consumers?
The airline constantly strives to innovate and is breaking down the boundaries between conventional commercial aviation and hospitality. Across the travel industry, we are raising the standard of luxury travel by challenging expectations with our new innovations. Our premium guests start their journey with a complimentary limousine service, premium check-in and while on board our service compares with a five-star hotel. We introduced the ‘Residence by Etihad’ with this in mind, creating a new experience in commercial air travel. We recognised that we would have to reinvent the way we served our guests in this cabin, creating an overall guest experience based on privacy and exclusivity.
The Residence by Etihad is the world’s first private multi-room cabin on a commercial passenger aircraft. It features a living room, double bedroom, separate en suite shower room, and for the first time in the airline industry, a dedicated Savoy-trained butler. Measuring 125 square feet in total area, The Residence is located on the forward upper deck of the airline’s fleet of Airbus A380s, and is available for single or double occupancy.
Etihad is always launching new routes, but which new routes are most exciting for the UK market?
In 2017, UK passengers will be able to benefit from three additional weekly flights between Abu Dhabi and Sydney. This means we will operate a double-daily schedule from February next year. The enhancement to the airline’s Sydney schedule will offer greater flexibility and options for passengers flying via Abu Dhabi. Virgin Australia’s new three weekly Perth-Abu Dhabi flights, these extra services will complement our existing codeshare flights with Virgin Australia to Western Australia.From this month, guests flying between Abu Dhabi and Tokyo Narita will be able to enjoy the luxury and comfort of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner when we upgrades its service on the route. While Etihad Airways and partner Jet Airways will also be expanding services between Abu Dhabi and India, with 28 additional weekly flights and three further Indian cities – Tiruchirappalli, Kannur and Chandigarh – added to the network from early 2017.In addition to our UK departure points from three major cities, Etihad Airways has recently announced the introduction of an additional daily year-round service between Abu Dhabi and Dublin, which increases frequency on the route to 14 flights a week, with effect from April 2017. The increase reflects our long-term commitment to the route, enabling both business and leisure travellers to enjoy double daily connections via Abu Dhabi to key destinations including Sydney, Melbourne, Delhi, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
How does Etihad work with the travel trade and what support does it offer agents and operators?
Etihad Airways’ trade relations activity capitalises on the airline’s network, affiliate and direct partner relationships and follows our business plan for international growth. We have a strong team covering the UK that manages global and regional trade, plus corporate accounts in the country and overseas. The UK is obviously a key strategic market. Out of our fleet of Airbus A380s, three currently serve the UK and that’s the most we have on one city in our network, so it demonstrates the importance of the country to us.
In 2016 we relaunched ‘SuperSeller’, our dedicated front line trade incentive programme with the addition of ‘The Unforgettables’, a promotion that gives agents the chance to win experiential prizes and shopping vouchers. In May, 80 agents enjoyed a direct product experience participating in the Etihad Airways hosted mega-fam to Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways also flew more than 40 agents from the UK trade to Australia Tourism Exchange as the official airline host.