In a sign the carrier may be planning to at last deploy the type into commercial service, Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) last week ferried to Abu Dhabi International one of its five A350-1000s that were built before the COVID-19 pandemic but mothballed without ever operating a single revenue flight.
F-WXAA (msn 290), which will become A6-XWB on the Emirati register, was ferried from Bordeaux Mérignac to the UAE on May 22, 2021, and will reportedly be followed by at least one more aircraft. Etihad took four A350-1000s between June and September 2019 and the fifth one in May 2020. However, as it was undergoing restructuring even before the pandemic, it saw no need to induct these aircraft into service and placed them into storage in France instead.
During the recent World Aviation Festival, Chief Executive Tony Douglas confirmed the A350 would feature in the carrier's future plans.
"The statement we’ve made clear is that the backbone of our fleet, for the medium term, is the B787... We do have A350-1000s in that plan as well. And that is the backbone of that mid-sized carrier. You’ll see of us a very focused, very disciplined operating model, which is heavily built around the fleet type of B787 Dreamliner and the A350-1000," he said.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows Etihad has a further fifteen A350-1000s on firm order from Airbus, although it has indicated that it could reduce the order. It originally committed to a total of sixty-two A350s, including forty A350-900s and twenty-two -1000s, but cancelled all the -900s and two -1000s in 2019. Its B787 fleet comprises thirty B787-9s and nine B787-10s.
In a statement to Bloomberg, Etihad declined to provide even a tentative date for the A350's debut.
"The introduction date of the aircraft’s entry into service is yet to be determined as part of the airline’s broader strategy planning," it said.
