In an effort to draw in high-end leisure visitors, Etihad Airways brought back its Airbus SE A380 superjumbos after a three-year hiatus. However, worries are being raised about the durability of the post-COVID vacation boom.

This summer, the Abu Dhabi-based airline will deploy four of its ten A380s to London Heathrow Airport, where it will be the first to fly the double-decker aircraft.

Since the lifting of travel restrictions imposed during the epidemic, according to Etihad, more leisure travelers who previously travelled in economy have switched to premium.

‘The Residence’ in the sky

With 70 business-class seats, nine first-class “apartments,” and a three-room suite in the sky called The Residence, Etihad can provide more than twice as much premium seating on the A380 as it could with the Boeing Co. 787 jets it previously flew on the trip.

While business travel is still not up to pre-pandemic levels, the carrier is still seeing a surge of demand for premium travel especially on the London-Abu Dhabi route, according to Ed Fotheringham, Etihad’s vice president for Europe and Americas. Abu Dhabi’s Michelin-starred restaurants, five-star hotels and tourist attractions such as Ferrari World are popular draws for well-heeled tourists, Fotheringham said.

Only a few airlines, including Singapore Airlines Ltd., British Airways, and Qantas Airways Ltd., have revived their much smaller fleets of A380s after demand surged post-pandemic. Next-door neighbor Emirates continues to be the biggest advocate for the A380, operating over 100 of the type. Emirates offers additional services to the city’s Gatwick airport in addition to its daily six A380 flights to London Heathrow.

Some airlines are less optimistic that the current high demand will last the rest of the year as pandemic savings diminish and wallets are squeezed by rising inflation and a greater cost of living. As prices drop and domestic travel slows, Alaska Air Group Inc. issued a warning on Tuesday that this will have an impact on its quarterly performance.

The largest discount carrier in Europe, Ryanair Holdings Plc, announced this week that it may lower ticket rates this winter in order to fill seats as customers become more price conscious due to the current economic situation. Even London’s Heathrow Airport issued a warning that lower leisure demand could result from increased consumer prices after the summer.

Stopover traffic

Fotheringham claimed he wasn’t worried about the A380 planes’ seats being filled because Abu Dhabi connects Europe and Asia, providing layovers for tourists who wish to travel further afield.

Without going into further detail, Fotheringham stated that bringing back the A380s enables Etihad to “fill a gap” while the airline awaits delayed aircraft deliveries, some of which are anticipated later this year. According to statistics from the manufacturers, Etihad has orders for 32 Boeing 787s, 25 777X aircraft that have not yet received certification, and 15 Airbus A350 aircraft.

After failing to find customers for the twin-deck, four-engine aircraft, Airbus cancelled the A380 in 2019 as airlines opted for smaller, more maneuverable twin-engine jets that could operate multiple frequencies per day.