(upbeat music)
- It's 5:30 in the morning at Abu Dhabi International.
It was really foggy on the way over.
I hope my flight is not delayed,
because today is quite an important inaugural flight again.
(upbeat music)
It's good to see they removed all the restriction,
now you can handle your own food.
I remember when I came during COVID,
there's boxes and everything is sealed and packed.
Now the buffet is already back.
Well, I guess we saw the aeroplane.
That's right, the Etihad A350-1000.
A lot of media is invited,
lots of AV geeks at the window
waiting for the inaugural flight.
Just like the good old days.
I'm so glad to see this is coming back.
You know, it's like a little festivity
back to the good old time.
I met a young lady here, (lady laughs)
She told me she won lottery tickets
to get on board this aeroplane today.
- [Lady] Yay!
- [Sam] So you're going on board
just to look at the new aeroplane?
- Yes! New aeroplane.
- [Sam] Same here, like me.
(lady cheers)
(upbeat music)
- 43 times 2980 north terminal is checked.
Flight time is checked.
- Hi, my name is Andre Cossette
I'm the captain today, assisted by the captain Ahmed Rashid.
- Hello!
- And we will take you on the inaugural flight
of the A350-1000.
On the Flight 037 to Paris, Charles de Gaulle.
We have a six hour and 53 minute.
We'll be cruising at 36,000 feet today,
and we'll do a speed of mark eight-five.
The fuel consumption will be burning
around 6.7 tonnes per hour today.
- [Sam] What other aeroplane you've flown before this?
- Flew the 380.
- [Sam] What's the 380 fuel burn like?
- We're in excess of almost 40% more.
- [Sam] 40% more?
- More. So our 350 fleet is
one of the only 350s equipped with the new touch function.
So basically you have the gestures
similar to some tablet here.
- [Sam] Oh, it's touch screen! The 350 that's new!
older 350 hasn't got this feature.
- Exactly. And we can bring, when we want to work
as a crew here, we can bring on the centre panel to discuss
as a crew, work. And still has the touch here.
- [Sam] Wow!
- And we're standing at the gate 3-0 right?
- It's like a festival on board.
So many people taking pictures,
everyone's excited for the new aeroplane.
And of course, I think I'm the first passenger
sitting in row 14K at this seat here.
(upbeat music)
- Before take off, check list: Flight control.
- Check. - Check.
Flight instruments?
- Check. - Check, this one right here.
Check.
Briefing. - Confirm.
- Flap setting? - (indistinct)
- (indistinct)
- Check.
- Thanks, complete.
Let take off, take off.
Take off.
(aeroplane engine whooshing)
(man speaking indistinctly)
(air whooshing)
(engine buzzing)
(upbeat music starts)
- So we just took off and before I get to explore
the rest of the plane, I want to show you
a very cool personal travel assistant app I've been using.
It's called App in the Air.
So inside here I've been managing all my upcoming travel
and my past travel.
So I have all my trip loaded.
So instead having many emails,
all your flights in different calendars,
this is the app that can centrally manage
all your upcoming flights.
There's a lot of features here.
Some of the very handy features, the travel advice,
right now there's so much travel restrictions
to every country and the rules change all the time.
So this app gives you the latest.
And also I can upload my vaccination certificate here,
From the airport, it shows you the waiting time
and security line.
So for AV geek like me,
this app actually helps me to keep a lab book on my flights.
So you can see that this is the map,
where everywhere I have flown is already digitised
in the record here.
It also tells me which flight I've done in the past
which aircraft type I've done, also.
You can also have all your free
good flyer managed in one screen here.
You can even found out how much is your carbon footprint
and offset your CO2 emission.
So the app also has a booking feature.
You can book your flight and hotel all within the app.
And here's the great news for my viewer.
You will get up to 20% off on your next flight.
If you book on the app App in the Air.
This video is sponsored by App in the Air.
(upbeat music starts)
See it say 'Celebrating the A350'.
A special edition headrest cover.
So I'm going to take that home later.
Now, this is very interesting
because it has a wing on the head risk
and my head can actually lean to support it.
There's two main economy cabin,
one in the middle, one in the aft, big one, 327 seats.
But the first five rows here has extra space.
They call economy space.
This is a tablet holder here.
So you can put your phone here and watch the stuff directly
from your personal entertainment.
And also I can bring my own AirPod or headset
and using Bluetooth directly connecting to the IFE.
So there's no more those loose cable headset anymore.
(upbeat music starts)
So on the A350, the chief of Etihad aviation group,
Mr. Tony Douglas, joining me.
Tell me how many A350 will be joining Etihad's fleet
into operation.
- [Tony] This is the first.
We're going to deploy over time, 12 A350-1000's.
- [Sam] And where are they going to fly to?
- [Tony] So it's an ultra long call craft.
So when we deploy these aircraft in the summer of this year
they're going to be going into North America.
So ideally suited for the thick route into JFK
into Chicago, back into Abu Dhabi, turnaround
into the Indian subcontinent Mumbai, Delhi in particular,
back into Abu Dhabi, back into North America.
And we think that this is the future.
Not just in terms of A350-1000,
but in terms of our future 787 deliveries.
This is the standard our guests will expect to see.
- Now, Tony, I love the Etihad A380,
arguably the Etihad A380 is the most luxurious,
A380 in the sky and they're young, couple years old.
Are they coming back?
- We all love the A380.
What an incredible guest experience.
The sad reality is everybody knows
is it's not fuel efficient.
And as we talk today, you know, $117 a barrel for oil
it's just completely and utterly,
a non-starter from commercial economics.
And we're not a registered charity right now.
I'd never say never
because if surprisingly oil prices come down significantly
and ticket price yields hold up.
We'd love to see whether we could redeploy that aircraft.
But at the moment I have to be direct.
I can't imagine that's going to be any time soon slash
if forever, but sadly wonderful machine.
However, A350. Look at this 372 seats in comfort,
composite nerve frame
modern engines, modern controls, super fuel efficient
and particularly the challenge to aviation
to be a 100% carbon offset by 2050.
This is the Tesla of the aviation world.
Sadly, the A380 is the 1980s Ford F150.
We all love the way it sounds, we all love the way it looks
but sadly it's environmentally a bad performer.
So there you have it.
- Pastry, on the way.
- Thank you. - Welcome.
Yes. This is my first time in this aircraft.
- [Sam] You're a bit struggle.
Need some time to get used to it.
- Getting used to the challenges it's yeah, okay.
- [Sam] It's smaller, right? It's smaller than 787.
- Yes. You have to adjust to the situation.
- [Sam] Is it smaller than the 787 galley?
- No, the galley is not smaller, I think it's wider.
- [Sam] It's wider than 78.
Finally, I got my food, that was about three hours.
I've been more than three hours
since takeoff I'm sitting in a far back.
So they took almost an hour from the front to the back.
And I guess the crew's not really familiar
with the A350 yet.
We had a lot of turbulence on the flight.
Literally, I never saw the ground, literally,
from Turkey onward to Europe now.
And that omelette I order was pretty rubbery.
Maybe it was already getting dry,
when I get here after four hours.
It's like a little rendezvous
and seeing a lots of usual media before the pandemic.
And they're back, here's Nicky from The Points Guy, UK.
So Nicky, how are you feeling on this aeroplane?
What's your front?
- First of all,
I think there's just something really exciting
about being at one of these events.
Again, you know, seeing you, Sam,
and just the the world is returning to normal.
The product itself is also really lovely.
I think I'm used to flying the bridge airways club suite.
I came on board expecting just to feel
like I was getting on board a BA plane
but there's something like extra chic and nice about this.
The browns and creams and gold of Etihad
I think work really well with this seat.
And I think it's a really comfy, nice and beautiful product.
Actually, I'm interested in your thoughts as well.
- [Sam] You are a seat expert.
I don't think anyone is more expert than you are David.
I think this is the same as British airways.
The A350, what do you say?
- Yeah, you're bang on the money, Sam.
This seat is based on the Collins Aerospace Super Diamond.
It's the most recent version which British Airways had out
with the sliding doors.
There are a couple of key differences though.
One for example is the British Airway seat has
a small cubby hole here, a little amenity kick
you can put in there.
And when you open the door to this closet
it reveals a vanity mirror.
That's a nice touch.
Etihad has gone for a simple lamp and a literature holder.
Another difference is that the British airway seat has
this soft lining all the way around the back here
which helps absorb noise,
especially when you are trying to sleep.
That's not present on the Etihad product.
There are two significant improvements though,
one is that the Etihad product has wireless charging.
Just drop your phone down here, recharges automatically.
Secondly, the Etihad seat has two USB ports,
one USBA and one USBC for modern devices.
So it's a bit of swings and roundabouts.
- Now lowering my seats to take a nap
and honestly I only slept 20 minutes last night.
Dunno why I was getting nervous or excited.
And yeah, this one has this suite door.
See, I actually close it to add a privacy
which is very good individual access privacy.
(upbeat music playing)
Now my verdict, what did I think about
the new business class and the 350-1000 on Etihad?
I think the product is not the most revolutionary products
but I think it's an improvement overall
about what they currently have in their business class.
And it has to suite door privacy.
1, 2, 1 sitting.
It can be a very comfortable, long haul flight.
And a little tip I think would be helpful
is to select a seat in the front of the cabin
because there's 44 seats, a giant cabin.
The service might get slower down to the later rows.
So if you sit in the front, you might have your meal
and finish it quicker.
So hopefully that helps you.
(woman speaks unintelligibly)
Oh, thank you, thank you so much.
(upbeat music plays)
- [Pilot] Weather in Charles de Gaulle,
we have a light rain and wind
from the north about 25 kilometre per hour
and three degrees celsius on the ground.
- [Automated Voice] 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13
(air whooshing)
(passengers applauding)
(upbeat music starts)