Onboard Etihad’s A321LR delivery flight: Behind ...

Boarding Etihad’s A321LR supply flight

Etihad Flight 3210 — a flight quantity chosen as a nod to the Airbus A321LR — was scheduled to depart from Airbus’ Hamburg manufacturing facility at 10 a.m. native time.

Very like a industrial flight, we arrived almost two hours earlier than departure. However there was no terminal in sight.

Onboard Etihad’s A321LR enterprise class

Turky Alhammadi, Etihad’s prolific director of product, was ready to greet flyers on the high of the airstairs, and from there, it was time to step onboard the jet.

Nobody flying on Friday was stunned by the airline’s new first-class, business-class and financial system cabins. That is as a result of everybody had attended Thursday’s supply ceremony, which ended with a complete plane tour.

However, that did not cease nearly each passenger, together with Etihad staff, from snapping photos and movies as they boarded and took their seats.

I have been on my fair proportion of particular flights earlier than, from inaugurals to ferries. Nonetheless, none had the identical degree of pleasure that I witnessed whereas boarding Etihad’s A321LR.

Maybe that is as a result of the airline did an outstanding job customizing principally each side of the smooth product for the flight.

The airline labored with a neighborhood Abu Dhabi artist to create a colourful portray of the A321LR flying above skyscrapers from the cities the A321LR will serve. This portray was printed on the menus, Wi-Fi vouchers and even on a commemorative tote bag that was ready for every passenger.

The crew additionally handed out supply flight certificates bearing the signature of CEO Antonoaldo Neves, which additionally had the colourful A321LR motif printed on it.

Along with all of the particular facilities, the standard-issue Armani Casa-branded merchandise — together with an amenity package, pillow, cover, mattress pad and slippers — had been all ready for the business- and first-class passengers. (Etihad shipped all of the facilities to Frankfurt earlier than the inaugural flight because it would not have any provisioning in Hamburg.)

Whereas settling in, I spent a while exploring the first-class suite, which undoubtedly appears like an enormous step up from enterprise class.

The pods, full with sliding doorways, have virtually limitless house to your ft, and so they even characteristic a buddy seat if you would like to dine with a companion.

Closing the door actually helped create a way of private house.

Whereas I might’ve spent the entire flight in first-class, Neves arrived simply as boarding ended to occupy his throne in 1A.

Again to seat 5F in enterprise class I went, and I used to be truthfully much more impressed with the product than I believed I might be.

When Etihad repeatedly mentioned that it aimed to deliver wide-body consolation to a narrow-body airplane, I took the declare with a grain of salt. Having flown related merchandise on different A321-family jets, I’ve lengthy mentioned that the spaciousness of a wide-body lets airways ship extra spectacular merchandise.

That mentioned, I left the almost seven-hour journey completely impressed with the enterprise product, which is a personalized model of the Stelia Opera seat.

Whereas the gold-colored seat trims, faux-marble facet desk and gold sconce all added a way of luxuriousness to the product, the seat itself did not disappoint both.

Maybe essentially the most thrilling side of the product was the open and outsized footwell, which is difficult to seek out in a business-class seat today. This made sleeping and stress-free very straightforward — there was completely no contorting essential to get comfy.

The outsized 20-inch-long and 15 1/2-inch-wide tray desk prolonged from beneath the facet desk. I might transfer it nearer or farther from me, and it was straightforward to make amends for work and dine with this setup.

Now the product is not excellent, and a few tradeoffs had been essential to accommodate the narrow-body expertise.

The primary is a scarcity of storage. There isn’t any enclosed storage in both first or enterprise class, and that is an enormous downside for individuals who typically misplace free objects like wallets, keys and AirPods.

The second is the shortage of a sliding door in enterprise. Etihad could not set up doorways as a result of weight they’d add to the jet (which might limit payload in the course of the hottest months in Abu Dhabi). And whereas I might undoubtedly nonetheless see my neighbors and foot site visitors within the aisle, the reverse herringbone association not less than meant that I wasn’t staring into the aisle.

Drawbacks apart, that is nonetheless a top-tier product, and it solely bought higher with the slew of high-tech devices and gizmos.

For one, each seat on this jet encompasses a 4K TV, and those in enterprise measure 17 1/3 inches. Whereas I might management it with my finger, there was additionally a useful touchpad-based distant that I might use to pick programming.

The TVs assist Bluetooth, and I had no hassle connecting my AirPods to the system.

I additionally had no downside preserving all my gadgets juiced up because of 4 totally different charging choices: common outlet, USB-A, USB-C and Qi wi-fi charging.

However essentially the most thrilling tech improve was undoubtedly the Wi-Fi, offered by Viasat. I loved streaming-quality speeds from takeoff to landing, with downloads hovering round 10 Mbps and uploads round 1 Mbps.

Etihad luckily did not overlook the fundamentals, both.

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ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

Every seat has a private air vent, and there are two standard-size toilets shared between the first-and business-class cabins.

As I used to be exploring my cocoon in 5F, I used to be interrupted by a cabin announcement from Neves, who was thanking and congratulating all the staff who made Friday’s supply flight doable.

After a brief 20-minute air site visitors delay from Eurocontrol (supply flights share the identical airspace as all the opposite jets within the sky), it was time for pushback.

The Airbus headquarters would not have many taxiways, so we taxied down the departure runway earlier than making a U-turn on the finish and jetting off runway 23 at 10:39 a.m. native time.

We celebrated liftoff with some cheering and applause, after which the hand-picked crew sprang into motion. (Etihad is staffing 5 crew on this flight: one for first-class, two for enterprise and two for financial system.)

To have fun the supply, the crew introduced some canapes and mocktails to set the temper earlier than launching into the extra formal four-course lunch service.

Etihad all the time presents a top-tier eating expertise in enterprise class, and this flight was no exception.

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ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY

From the signature Arabic mezze to the seabass to the fruits served with dessert, I completed the meal so fortunately satiated that I could not think about having a nibble on the all-day eating menu just some hours later.

It wasn’t lengthy after ending the meal that I caught myself dozing off, which was very straightforward on this comfy seat with all of the bedding and open footwell. (The meals coma in all probability helped, too.)

I awakened as we had been halfway over Iraq. At this level, the sunshine was getting softer outdoors, which meant that our arrival in Abu Dhabi was approaching.

It was a bittersweet second, however little did I do know that the occasion would proceed on land.

Arriving on Etihad’s A321LR supply flight

After touchdown on Abu Dhabi’s runway 31L, we turned away from the brand new terminal and as an alternative taxiied towards the outdated one.

As a substitute of parking at one of many outdated gates, we pulled as much as the non-public VIP terminal and deplaned through air stairs coated in a pink carpet.

A few of my fellow passengers in all probability did not even discover what was happening as a result of they had been too busy wiping their sweat. In any case, the warmth index on arrival was over 100 levels.

However inside moments, we had been ushered contained in the VIP terminal to a ready group of greater than 100 excited Etihad staff and executives.

Quick speeches commenced shortly thereafter. In the course of the speeches, a speedy cleansing crew boarded the airplane, and by the point the official ceremonies ended, all the native attendees bought an opportunity to tour the (clear) airplane.

As for me, I waved farewell to the A321LR and ventured off to courageous the warmth, hoping to sooner or later get one other likelihood to get pleasure from a flight onboard Etihad’s A321LR.

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