Etihad removes First from Malpensa, but flagship arrives with new business class suites

Last spring, as advocates of flying well, on The Flight Club we had celebrated The news of the arrival at Milan Malpensa of Etihad Airways' new Airbus A321LR. which, in addition to offering a third frequency between Milan and Abu Dhabi in the current Winter, would offer passengers fourteen Business Class seats in a 1-1 configuration with the real treat represented, however, by the two exclusive First Class suites placed in the first row of the plane's cabin.

With the arrival of Etihad's 321LR, there would have been three First Classes available to passengers in the Winter at the Lombard airport: that of Emirates, that of Kuwait Airways (aboard the Boeing 777-300ER put on the route to the Gulf in place of the Airbus A330-800 and -900 normally operated by the Kuwaiti carrier) and, indeed, that of Etihad.

Flights with the single-aisle bireactor, according to the emirate airline's timetable, would begin on November 4 with two frequencies per week, then increase in the following months to five frequencies per week during February and March, months considered high season for both those traveling to the Emirates and those continuing on to other Asian destinations such as the Maldives or Thailand.

Instead, consulting Etihad's timetable now, it turns out that the Airbus A321LR and its First, which are operating twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) between Milan and Abu Dhabi, will disappear with the very onset of February, the one in which the link frequencies were supposed to increase. The last day when we will see (at least until the end of October) the plane at Malpensa will be on Friday, Jan. 30, when it will operate flight EY 87 Abu Dhabi-Milan and then flight EY 88 Milan-Abu Dhabi, departing at 3:15 p.m. and arriving in the Emirates 20 minutes after midnight on January 31.

Etihad's decision to remove the A321 from Milan, and with it the third frequency, could be linked to several factors such as First's lack of success in a market like Milan that has never shown significant volumes of that type of traffic, problems with the timeliness of the aircraft's delivery to the company, or the decision to position it in markets other than its initially stable ones (Etihad recently announced that it will increase from two to three daily frequencies between Abu Dhabi and Zurich and that all three routes will be operated with THE A321LR.

However, Milan passengers can console themselves with the presence on the route of the company's 'flagship' on routes to Abu Dhabi, as the Airbus A350-1000 equipped with sliding door suites in Business Class will operate at least one when not both routes to Abu Dhabi.