Etihad Airways: on board the Airbus A350-1000 Inaugural Flight

It's always a great privilege to be aboard an inaugural flight and even more so when it's a brand new aircraft type and cabin for the carrier. Flight-Report.com was honoured to have been the only French media invited to take part in Etihad Airways' launch of commercial flights with the A350-1000. First ordered in 2008, Etihad's A350s were delayed, then delivered to the airline in 2019 without cabins and remained in storage in Bordeaux as the global pandemic hit drying up demand for long-haul travel overnight. As the global situation began to improve, the small fleet of A350s arrived at home base in Abu Dhabi in the summer of 2021 ready to be outfitted with new cabins, which Etihad had kept a secret until that point.