Abu Dhabi’s Etihad to suspend New York service

Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways will cut one of its two daily Airbus A380 flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport from later this year.

The cutback will coincide with the carrier’s suspension of routes to the Scottish capital Edinburgh and Australia’s Perth on October 1, Etihad confirmed in a statement.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad to suspend flights to Edinburgh, Perth

“Etihad Airways will amend its schedule from Abu Dhabi to New York (JFK), from a double daily to a daily service, effective 1 October 2018,” a spokesperson said.

The carrier added it would work with travel agency partners to notify and re-accommodate impacted customers.

The other daily flight EY101/100 will continue to be operated by an Airbus A380.

Etihad also said on Tuesday it would be upgrading its second Paris service from a Boeing 777-300 to an A380 on October 1, suggesting the aircraft on the suspended New York route had been redeployed.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad to fly only A380s to Paris

The airline has cut back a number of routes over the last year as part of a wider review after posting a $1.87bn loss in 2016.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad to suspend flights to Edinburgh, Perth

Etihad said in February it was pulling five Boeing 777-200LR passenger jets from its fleet after deciding last year to drop some flights that the aircraft were used on. These included services to San Francisco and Dallas Fort Worth it suspended in October and March respectively.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad phases out 5 Boeing 777-200LRs

Sources told Gulf Business in January that the airline was preparing to cut up to 10 per cent of pilots to reduce costs.

Etihad denied the figure but said it had asked pilots to take voluntary unpaid leave.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Etihad denies plans to cut 10% of pilots