Etihad First Class Gone From Washington. Triple's Down On New York JFK.

As noted in a previous post Eithad is adding the A380 to JFK come June 2024. However, probably correlated, since that announcement Etihad has decided to go all in on First Class to JFK.

Eithad has a sub fleet of 787-9 with First Class and typically operates to London and Washington among other destinations. However, Etihad has now dropped Washington as of today which is not a surprise as recent prices saw fares drop over 50% on that First Class route meaning it wasn't probably as profitable as expected. So what is Etihad going to do with the planes? Well, the answer is to fly twice daily on top of the A380 to New York.

Just to re-iterate Etihad has gone from 0 First Class seats daily to 26 Daily First Class seats. One might think they are trying to compete with Emirates.

Interestingly note that the A350 has been dropped officially now to JFK.

My Thoughts

I can see why Etihad has decided to do this because the yield is so high for premium fare at the moment between the Middle East and New York. Washington flights weren't going out full and with already sending the A380 to New York it made sense to triple down on New York instead of offering a once-daily service to Boston or LA, which currently doesn't see FC flights.

My thoughts are that more aircraft have to be coming out of storage or planes are getting delivered at a rate of knots if Etihad is going to keep up with this on timeline. The reason is that a rumor has surfaced that next year Etihad plans to send the A380 to Toronto.

5000$ cheaper for the same flight

Booking

A small thing to note about booking this leg is it is a lot more expensive when taking the solo direct flight. If you want to experience Etihad First Class try originating in Cairo or Jakarta for the best fares.

The Eithad First Class product on the 787-9 is a solid offering. With enclosing suites, caviar service, good champagne (sometimes), and great food. I highly recommend it.

Conclusion

Etihad has triple downed on JFK with First Class into the summer schedule of 2024. This doesn't actually come surprisingly as Washington wasn't selling the best and with the efforts of cost cutting, consolidating First Class to one hub in the US sounds like a good monetary idea.