Review of Etihad Airways flight Abu Dhabi → Rome in Economy

from abu dhabi to the world

Hey guys and welcome to another Flight Report!

This is the 2nd FR of my final trip of 2023 and will cover the return leg from Abu Dhabi to Rome. To be honest, I only chose to do this FR because of the brand new terminal at Abu Dhabi. This flight is very similar to my outbound flight to the UAE, except this one is 100% in darkness so the photos won't be great. The new Terminal A in Abu Dhabi International Airport (or Zayed International Airport, as it will be known from 2024) was opened on 31 October 2023 with all airline operations moving to the terminal on 14 November, around a month before this FR. I had a glimpse of it when I arrived a few days ago and it looked gorgeous so I'm really curious what the departures area will be like. 

I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this flight is:

AUH-FCO/NAP-LHR: 359kg
Total for 2023 (final): 4590kg

Rounding up, this equates to 5 tonnes of CO2 offset for 2023.

video report

Here's the video version of this FR, it's got pretty much the same thing content wise. 

city check-in

Unlike most of my FRs, I'll start this one on a bus 14 hours before the flight. This is because I received a message from Etihad a few days ago informing that their city check-in service is free for the first 2 weeks of December (due to the extra traffic from COP28 that was happening at that time). There are two locations, one by the cruise terminal and another one in the ADNEC (Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre), which is the one closer to my hotel. This is incredibly convenient for me since I can check-in in the morning and not having to worry about storing my luggage in the hotel (plus I get to skip the check-in queues later). This service usually costs 35AED.

And here we are. Like a lot of Abu Dhabi, this place is very new (and well maintained), except it's almost completely deserted. 

The check-in desk is hidden right at the back of the building. There were no signs and no one around (apart from the very helpful receptionist who basically told me to keep walking until I see a sign). 

It's so weird walking around an (almost) empty building. It feels like I'm not supposed to be here haha. Unsurprisingly, check-in took no time at all. This honestly is so much nicer than queueing at the airport and for 35AED, it's totally worth it (if you're staying in the area).  

Getting to the airport… well, at least trying to

Today (the 2nd of December) is UAE's National Day. I was completely unaware of this when I booked the flight but it's quite a big occasion here (kinda like 4th July in the US) where everyone comes out to celebrate. 

The road's closed ahead (not sure why), which is why the traffic's completely gridlocked. 

And the white stuff? That's confetti haha. And no, it wasn't the owners that put it there. 

Pretty insane scenes. Along with confetti, they're also spraying random cars with foam (as seen on the left). I'm sure the owners will have a lovely time cleaning that up haha. To make things crazier, they then started spraying random people with the foam. which caused as much chaos as you can imagine. Luckily I got away just in time so I wasn't covered (which would've made the trip back home… interesting.)

But finally here's the bus station. It may seem calm here at the terminus but there's a huge crowd of people at every stop along the main road. The bus was full by the 3rd stop with some poor tourists getting turned away (after claiming they've been waiting for over 2 hours). I'm sure it's only today that's this crowded but buses in Abu Dhabi tend to be very full (the city desperately needs a metro or something like Dubai).

Abu Dhabi international airport (AUH)

But finally, here we are in front of the terminal. As I mentioned, this is a brand new terminal that only opened a month ago. 

And yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous. 

The check-in area itself is huge with a few convenience stores (seen on the left). 

Departures for tonight. 

Here's the check-in area for our flight. The queue doesn't look too bad (around 5-10 minutes wait). Obviously we can skip it completely as we've already checked in. 

Security and passport control took another 10 minutes and we are through airside. 

A nice sculpture (and some greenery) right next to the duty free area. 

They honestly designed this place just like how they designed their malls. It just feels like a massive mall which makes navigating around incredibly confusing. The place doesn't have a food court and there's a very limited amount of restaurants and bars scattered around the place. It made finding somewhere to get food pretty hard and I must've walked around in circles at least three times before finding a place eventually. 

I did try to visit the Pearl Lounge (entrance is on the left) which is free with my dragonpass. However, there was a massive queue outside of it so I didn't bother. 

Instead, we'll have a walk around the gates.

The end of the terminal. It's very quiet here. 

Rather annoyingly, most of the seating around the gates (apart from the end) are closed off for pre-boarding only, which makes planespotting (and just finding somewhere to sit outside the departures area) quite hard (unless you're willing to walk to the very end of the terminal). 

The flight

Flight time tonight will be around 6 hours and here's our route:

Boarding started around 30 minutes late. This is due to the aircraft arriving late from Bangkok. 

The IFE and seatback pocket - this is the same as I had on my outbound flight. 

I'm also sitting in one of the last rows on the 777, which has a 2-4-2 configuration (unlike the 3-4-3 everywhere else). It just means a ton of space on my right and is my preferred seat for comfort (when there's nothing to see out of the window). 

The legroom - it's alright for long hauls. 

Along with the usual pillow and blanket, the airline also gives out an amenity kit for night flights. It includes the usual stuff like eye mask, ear plugs and toothpaste. It's not something that's usually given out in economy these days so it's a huge plus for Etihad. 

First views out of the window. As I mentioned, this flight is completely at night so there'll be almost no photos outside. 

Pushback 20 minutes late with a view of the terminal. 

There's nothing to see during taxi and takeoff so we'll just skip straight to the snack given after takeoff. 

It's mini cheese sandwich, an apple crumble with a cup of water. It's nothing spectacular but it'll do for a night flight, especially when everyone wants to sleep.

Lets have a look at the Wi-Fi onboard. This will obviously be the same as my outbound flight. 

Flight information, weather and arrival information is available as well as e-magazines for free.

And here are the prices - it's very reasonable.

The IFE is identical to my outbound flight with the same content so I just reused the images I took for that flight (night flights don't give the best image quality sadly.)

As mentioned in my last FR, the contents are amazing and this system is much, much faster than that one (which was my main complaint). That makes this one of the best IFEs I've had. Yes, it's a bit outdated but the content more than makes up for it (especially when it doesn't take 30 seconds to load). 

About two hours before landing, the crew came around with 'breakfast.'

And here it is:

There were 3 options, pancakes, omelet and noodles. Now, looking at the first two options, you'd expect the noodles to be something breakfast-related, which is why I chose it. Imagine my surprise when I got a proper main with beef and chili (yes, it's spicy). There's a good reason why spicy food isn't regularly served on planes (mainly because a lot of people don't eat spicy food) so I feel like the crew really should've made that clear (especially at 2 in the morning). The quality is great but it's not really something you'd expect to get for breakfast. Along with that, it's served with a yoghurt, croissant with jam and a fruit salad. All in all, it's a very high quality meal, especially for a 6 hour flight, just slightly unexpected. 

A photo of the toilets after the meal. It's still relatively clean considering it's nearing the end of the flight.

A little while after that, we're approaching Rome. 

Welcome to a (very dark) and gloomy Rome! We arrived around 40 minutes late. 

Rome–Fiumicino International Airport (FCO)

This is the same area as I departed 3 days ago, which means a passport control involves a train ride. 

After a short 10 minute wait (which isn't too bad considering all the non-Schengen arrivals this early), we are off to baggage reclaim. 

Baggage reclaim area. It took a further 15 minutes for my bag to arrive. 

And here we are, the same place as where I started just a few days ago. 

I'll end this FR here. I'm getting a train to Naples and then a flight from there back to London. There won't be an FR on that so my next FR will be on my first major trip of 2024 to a brand new continent. Thanks for reading and see you there!