Etihad Airways, which currently operates seven of its 10 Airbus A380 aircraft, plans to return two of the superjumbos to the skies amid a global shortage in planes and persistent supply chain bottlenecks.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline's eighth A380 will rejoin the fleet on June 15, 2026 and its ninth on January 1, 2027, the airline told The National.
The airline's 10th A380 double-decker has been decommissioned for spare parts, it said.
The move comes as global airlines grapple with years-long aircraft backlogs with manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, compounded by continuing supply chain disruptions that began during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The worldwide commercial backlog reached a historic high of more than 17,000 aircraft in 2024, up from backlog of around 13,000 aircraft annually between 2010 and 2019, according to International Air Transport Association (Iata).
That backlog is a major headache for airlines, hampering their ability to expand fleets and add capacity to meet the high demand for air travel. Airlines in the Middle East recorded an 8.2 per cent year-on-year increase in travel demand in August, according to Iata's latest monthly report. That's above the total demand of global airlines, which was up 4.6 per cent compared to August 2024.
Middle East airlines' load factor, or the percentage of seats filled on a plane, reached 83.9 per cent. But their capacity increased at a lower rate than demand growth, rising 6.9 per cent annually. By comparison, global airlines' total capacity was up 4.5 per cent year-on-year and their August load factor was 86 per cent.
Large backlogs are also hurting airlines financially. The slow pace of production of new aircraft and parts is estimated to cost the airline industry more than $11 billion in 2025, according to a joint report by Iata and the consultancy Oliver Wyman.
“Challenges within the aerospace industry’s supply chain are delaying production of new aircraft and parts, resulting in airlines re-evaluating their fleet plans and, in many cases, keeping older aircraft flying for extended amounts of time,” the report said.
Etihad's Residence in the sky
To cope with supply chain challenges, Etihad Airways has been leasing narrow-body aircraft, planning to refurbish its older wide-body jets and returning more of the mammoth A380s to service. It flies the superjumbo to routes including London, Toronto, Paris and Singapore.
Travellers flying on Etihad Airways' A380 will have the option to book The Residence – a three-room configuration featuring a private bedroom, an en suite shower and a living area with a personal butler. Etihad Airways' four-engined aircraft also features first-class apartments and business studios.
In the first nine months of 2025, the airline has flown 16.1 million passengers, up 18 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to its latest traffic report. Its operating fleet stood at 115 aircraft, serving 82 destinations globally, as of the end of September. Last month it carried 1.9 million passengers, up 21 per cent from September 2024.
"September delivered another strong month for Etihad, with demand remaining high as we entered the post-summer period," Antonoaldo Neves, chief executive of Etihad Airways, said. "We’re expanding with discipline, keeping our load factors high and operations reliable."
The airline is on a spree of new route announcements this year. Earlier in October it announced the launch of four new routes in one week. These included Sumatra (2 October), Phnom Penh (3 October), Addis Ababa (8 October) and Krabi (9 October). It plans to operate flights to Kabul in December, while services to Damascus, Palma de Mallorca and Zanzibar will all begin in the first half of 2026.
