EY 789 (two class) to PER from 01JUN16

[Pleb Status]

ETIHAD Outlines 2-class 787-9 Operation in 2016 | Airline Route

Could not see posted elsewhere that EY are changing AUH-PER-AUH from a two class 332 to a two class 789 from 01 June 2016.

Wether or not this is an upgrade is debatable in Y......

 

[Daver6]

The AUH - JNB route must be new as they previously code-shared with SAA on a A330.

 

[Mattg]

Certainly an upgrade for J, but I tend to agree about Y... 9 across on a 787 isn't fun for anyone.

 

[Arrow29]

I think I'm overall pleased as it will give us an option to try the latest Etihad business studio from Perth to Abu Dhabi using Velocity points to book (which seem quite reasonable in miles required for a long haul flight). We normally fly SQ but will probably use some velocity points to do this in a future trip, never been to Abu Dhabi or Dubai, want to at least visit once.

 

[exceladdict]

Good news for PER, disappointed it's not an A380 of course, but let's be honest there's enough PER>ME capacity across EK, EY and QR as it is... especially in Y.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

So annoying that they are putting another 2 class aircraft on the route.
This means Emirates will still be the only airline offering first class flights to and from Perth.
It is incomprehensible given Etihad's stated strategy to be the best, not the biggest.

 

[scottz95]

So annoying that they are putting another 2 class aircraft on the route.
This means Emirates will still be the only airline offering first class flights to and from Perth.
It is incomprehensible given Etihad's stated strategy to be the best, not the biggest.

I'm pretty certain Emirates almost never sells their first class out of Perth. Since Etihad very aggressively tries to sell upgrades even up to check in at the airport, it makes sense to try and sell just their J seats and sell paid upgrades rather than trying to get fully paid J to upgrade to F seats. To me, 6K full fare J or 1.5K Y + 3K J upgrade sounds a lot more enticing over a 6K J + 4K F upgrade at check in.

 

[mannej]

I'm pretty certain Emirates almost never sells their first class out of Perth. Since Etihad very aggressively tries to sell upgrades even up to check in at the airport, it makes sense to try and sell just their J seats and sell paid upgrades rather than trying to get fully paid J to upgrade to F seats. To me, 6K full fare J or 1.5K Y + 3K J upgrade sounds a lot more enticing over a 6K J + 4K F upgrade at check in.

Can you please clarify? Do you mean it as written, or as never sells out? If it is the not sell F out of PER, I am not sure that is correct?

 

[scottz95]

Can you please clarify? Do you mean it as written, or as never sells out? If it is the not sell F out of PER, I am not sure that is correct?

Never sells the entire cabin out. It probably sells a few seats but not the full cabin. Sorry, didn't word that well.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

As far as I can tell, Emirates averages sales of around 5 out of 7 seats in F on it's B777s and 10-12 out of 14 on it's A380 flights.
So that's around 16 F class PAX out of Perth per day.

In addition Qatar has capacity of 28 J seats per day and doesn't offer F from Perth.
Given QR's marketing strategy I would assume some of those PAX would fly F given a chance.

Etihad's 3 class 789s have 8 F suites.

I wouldn't think it was unrealistic to assume EY could pick up 6-8 PAX per day from EK, QR and other airlines which don't offer F from PER.
Their F product is very good. The 787 doesn't have a shower and a bar like the EY & EK A380s but I'd rate the suites, the food and the service above EK.
So the EY B787 product could certainly compete with the EK B777 product even if it struggled against the EK A380.
Also the flight from PER has excellent connections to flights to LHR CDG and other European cities, with only 2-3 hours in AUH.
The apartments on the A380 AUH<->LHR would be a drawcard as well.

As you observe EY manages to sell a lot of upgrades at the airport.
So they could probably fill any empty F seats by pushing their top tier FFs up to make room in J.
They do this frequently on the CDG<->AUH flights.

Of course the fact that EY hasn't gone down this path suggests that I might be wrong!


(I've arrived at the load figures using both ExpertFlyer and industry sources but I don't pretend to have actual knowledge of EK loads.)