A shortage of aircraft is understood to be part of the reason behind Abu Dhabi-based Etihad’s decision to cut back its Dublin service from next January.
The airline recently announced it planned to cut its twice-daily service from Dublin to Abu Dhabi to one service a day between January and June of next year.
Etihad will replace the A330s currently used on the route with Boeing 777s. The move will cut the overall number of business class seats on the service to 40 from its current level of 44. The number of economy class seats will fall by 120 to 340.
The move is said to be partly driven by the fact leases are up on a number of Etihad’s craft and the airline has to replace them. As a result it has fewer planes to go around.
Demand from carriers such as Etihad itself and another big gulf player, Emirates, which flies between Dublin and Dubai, means there is a squeeze on the supply of long-haul craft.
Growth
Emirates also flies twice daily out of Dublin. Both carriers launched services from the Irish capital in the teeth of the recession, Etihad in 2007 and its rival in 2011.
The two airlines subsequently stepped up their services to twice-daily in 2013. The numbers of Irish people moving to the Middle East and Australia in search of work are thought to have aided both services' growth.
The Dublin route is one of a number that Etihad is cutting back this winter. Others include Edinburgh and Kuala Lumpur.
Load factors – the proportion of seats it is selling on the route – are understood to be more than 90 per cent.
In a statement, Etihad said the changed service would continue to provide travellers with connections to other destinations in the gulf, India, Asia and Australia.
