Etihad Airways plans to operate one additional flight per day to London Heathrow Airport using a single-aisle Airbus A321 aircraft after successfully acquiring additional landing rights from American Airlines.
Like many busy airports around the world, Heathrow Airport is ‘slot controlled,’ which means that to operate flights to the airport, airlines must own or lease the rights to a specific pair of takeoff and landing slots.
Getting hold of slots at Heathrow is a famously tricky and expensive process, and slot pairs have been known to trade for tens of millions of dollars. Sometimes, however, airlines can temporarily trade slots for a shorter period of time.
That’s precisely what Etihad Airways has managed to do with American Airlines, which has given up one of its slot pairs for the Summer 2025 season.
According to Airport Coordination Ltd, the company that coordinates slot restrictions at various airports, American Airlines plans to lease out one slot pair between April and October 25, which is used to fly between Heathrow and Philadelphia and Dallas Fort Worth.
Etihad Airways currently operates four daily flights from its hub in Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow using a combination of Airbus A380 superjumbos and Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
In a surprise move, however, Etihad plans to add capacity to this flagship route using an Airbus A321, which is usually used for short regional hops.
Paperwork submitted by ACL shows that Etihad plans to use an A321 with a capacity of 196 passengers, which would suggest the airline has penciled in its regionally configured aircraft to operate this route.
This aircraft doesn’t have seatback TV screens or Wi-Fi, and the eight Business Class seats are only recliner-style seats.
However, Etihad is planning to start taking delivery of new A321LR aircraft this year, which will feature two First Class seats, 14 fully lie-flat seats in Business Class, and 144 seats in Economy Class.
These aircraft were meant to operate slightly longer flights on thinner routes with not as much demand – rather than a route like London Heathrow where Persian Gulf airlines can’t seem to add enough capacity.
For example, Emirates currently operates six daily flights between Dubai and London Heathrow, all of which are on its flagship Airbus A380 superjumbo. Meanwhile, Qatar Airways also operates six daily flights to London Heathrow and occasionally has even more flights – all of which are operated on widebody jets like the Boeing 777 and Airbus A350.
