Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) will begin A321-200NX(LR) flights on August 1, 2025, with a daily return service to Phuket before rolling out flights across cities in Southeast Asia, northern Africa, and Europe. It has twenty of the type on order and anticipates delivery of half of those by the end of the year.
Etihad CEO Antonoaldo Neves calls the A321-200NX(LR) an "amazing aircraft" and says the deliveries will mark a "transformational moment" for the airline as it pursues its Journey 2030 strategy of doubling the fleet and tripling passenger numbers. The three-class aircraft will offer 160 seats, including 144 in economy, 14 in business class, and two in first class.
Neves says Etihad will use the aircraft on thinner "short and medium-haul routes". In February, the airline said it would start A321LR flights to Düsseldorf and Copenhagen Kastrup on October 1; Phnom Penh on October 3; Krabi on October 9; Milan Malpensa and Tunis on November 1; Chiang Mai and Hanoi Noi Bai International on November 3; and Algiers on November 7.
In addition to the A321-200NX(LR)s, Etihad Airways has another 77 aircraft on order, including fourteen A350-1000s, ten A350Fs, eight B777-8s, seventeen B777-9s, eight B787-9s, and twenty B787-10s. It anticipates an average of 20 aircraft deliveries annually for the next five years.
