Etihad takes luxury route in global aviation’s jumbo plans

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  The luxury offering by Etihad will be available on New York-Abu Dhabi flights from December when it introduces an Airbus A380 on the route. Delores Johnson / The National

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  A member of Etihad's cabin crew shows off their butler uniform. Etihad offers a butler service aboard its new A380. Courtesy Etihad

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  Etihad's A380 offers a hotel experience in the air. Delores Johnson / The National

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  Etihad’s The Residence includes a suite, a private bathroom, separate bedrooms and a designated butler. The luxury offering will be available on New York-Abu Dhabi flights from December. Courtesy Etihad

Even at US$32,000, people are lining up to book Etihad Airways’ three-room suite between Abu Dhabi and New York.

The Residence, as Etihad calls its luxury offering, will be available on New York-Abu Dhabi flights in December when the airline puts an Airbus A380 superjumbo on the route instead of a Boeing 777. The living room, private bathroom and two-person bedroom are separated from other passengers in the nose of the double-decker jet’s upper level.

A private butler, who comes standard with a Residence fare, took visitors on a replica of the suite last week at the Global Business Travel Association convention in Orlando, Florida, and noted the spaciousness of the shower.

“We have experienced an overwhelmingly positive response to the Residence within the United States – beyond our expectations, in fact,” says the Etihad chief executive James Hogan. “We are seeing healthy forward bookings.”

• Step inside The Residence here

The intense interest in the mock-up and booming demand comes against a background of sour grapes from American, United and Delta airlines. The US carriers have complained to US officials that Etihad and other Arabian Gulf carriers are using state subsidies to compete unfairly, an assertion that Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways vehemently deny.

Etihad spent six years developing the Residence and has deployed it on A380s on overseas routes, such as Abu Dhabi to London. New York will see the ultra-luxe offering starting on December 1. The airline sold its first New York Residence ticket within hours of announcing the switch to A380s in March.

An Etihad spokeswoman, Katie Connell, declines to give specifics about how many Residence fares had been sold on New York flights. For the foreseeable future, though, the suite will remain very exclusive airborne property.

The Residence is offered only on Etihad’s A380s, and the airline has only ordered 10 of those from Airbus. There are no plans to offer the service in the US outside of New York, Mr Hogan says.

Etihad’s fellow Gulf carriers are upping their luxury games as well. Emirates, the region’s largest carrier, is developing a more-exclusive first-class offering featuring a bedroom concept. Qatar Airways has its own double-bed cabin in the works.

These efforts will not require Etihad to make any changes in the Residence, Mr Hogan says. “There’s nothing like it.”

Selling the one Residence booking available on Abu Dhabi– New York flights would be a revenue haul equivalent of about 26 of Etihad’s “economy saver” seats on that trip, based on prices from the airline’s website for December. The cheapest of those tickets lists for $1,225.

Meanwhile, New York’s LaGuardia Airport, consistently ranked among the worst in the US in cleanliness, design and delays, will be torn down and rebuilt with help from Delta Air Lines.

The new airport would consolidate four terminals into one, connect the facility to the New York City subway system, create more space for airplane taxiways and add a hotel, says the governor Andrew Cuomo.

He did not release a timetable for the full project, although he said the first phase, the $4 billion rebuilding of the 50-year-old central terminal, will open to the public in 2019 and be finished in 2021.

“There’s no way to fix this; we literally have to tear it down,” Mr Cuomo says.

His comments have been echoed by the US vice resident Joseph Biden, who has likened LaGuardia to an airport in a third-world country.

“New York deserves a better airport, and its future demands it,” Mr Biden says.

The governor’s announcement comes after LaGuardia suffered flight delays last month stretching to almost three hours after contractors working at a terminal used by Delta accidentally cut electric cables.

In May, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey selected a group led by the Swedish construction company Skanska to help finance, build and manage the replacement for the central terminal. Plans call for a new 35-gate facility with more restaurants, stores, bigger gate areas and improved passenger and baggage screening.

The redesigned facility will use a system in which passengers get to their gates through raised pedestrian bridges, helping to create more space for planes to taxi and ensuring fewer delays, officials said.

Delta has committed to redevelop its two terminals at the same time as the central building, Mr Cuomo says.

“This doesn’t happen without Delta Air Lines.”

Ed Bastian, the president of Atlanta-based Delta, has commended Mr Cuomo on the reconstruction plan. Delta has spent more than $2bn on infrastructure upgrades at LaGuardia and John F Kennedy International airports, he says. “The initiatives announced are aligned with our ongoing commitment to providing an exceptional experience for anyone travelling through New York for business or pleasure,” Mr Bastian says.

The new central terminal, also known as Terminal B, will be built in stages, says the Port Authority executive director Patrick Foye. The agency manages the area’s three major airports. Tenants of the Central Terminal include United Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

Mr Foye says he does not know how much Delta will contribute to the rebuilding or how ferry and rail connections to the airport are to be funded.

Port Authority is contributing $2.2bn to the project over the next 10 years.

LaGuardia Airport, in the borough of Queens, was voted America’s dirtiest and most poorly designed by readers of Travel & Leisure magazine in 2012. Built in 1964, with a capacity of 8 million annual air passengers, the central terminal is expected to serve 17.5 million passengers annually by 2030, according to the Port Authority.

In a statement provided by the governor’s office, Robert Caro, the Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer of the urban planner Robert Moses, calls Mr Cuomo’s vision of transforming LaGuardia “heroic”.

“Just as the first LaGuardia Airport took New York into the modern age of the 1930s and 40s, now we have this new airport which will take New York into the 21st century,” Mr Caro says.

Delta is also looking for opportunities outside the US. The carrier says it will pay $450 million to buy a stake in China Eastern Airlines.

The deal will give Delta a 3.55 per cent stake in Shanghai-based China Eastern and an observer seat on China Eastern’s board of directors, the companies say. The boards of both airlines still need to approve the deal, and the companies did not say when that is expected to happen.

Delta and China Eastern already have partnered on flights between the US and China. And in April, Delta moved its operations in Shanghai’s Pudong Airport to the same terminal as China Eastern and its subsidiary Shanghai Airlines. The move makes it easier for flyers to catch connecting flights between the three airlines, Delta said.

Delta shares are up more than 15 per cent over the past year.

While the airlines will deepen their ties on trans-Pacific routes, there is scope to work in other regions such as Europe, says James Wang, China Eastern’s board secretary, without providing more details.

This would help grow China Eastern’s international business, which accounts for 35 per cent of its revenues, he adds.

“China and the US are the two biggest aviation markets in the world and the growth potential is huge,” Mr Wang says. “There are lots of ways we can cooperate with each other, and not just limited to the China-US routes.”

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