Etihad Airways is introducing a new extra-legroom seating option called Economy Space. These seats will provide travellers with an additional 5 inches of legroom. The option will initially be available on flights to London, Paris, New York and Sydney. Read my review of Economy Space on a recent London to Abu Dhabi flight.
Etihad is creating the extra legroom by removing one row of seats from the front economy cabin on their A380s. Row 48 has disappeared from seat maps from mid-December. This increases the number of extra legroom seats available from 20 to 80 on the Etihad A380.
To be clear this is not a premium economy product. The seats are regular economy seats with just the 5 extra inches legroom. In-flight service, catering and amenities will be the same as the rest of the economy cabin. However, it would be easy for Etihad to introduce some additional differentiation in the future as most of the Economy Space seats will be in a separate cabin.
How to book Economy Space?
Economy Space seats are available for any economy passenger to purchase at the ‘seat selection’ stage of the booking process.
The price of snagging an Economy Space seat varies by route. Paris is the cheapest with JFK and Sydney the most expensive. The prices below are per leg when starting in Abu Dhabi. For returns double the price. Keep in mind if you’re on a connecting flight you will have to pay the seat selection fee four times.
- Paris CDG – AED 430 / $117 USD
- London Heathrow – AED 560 / $152 USD
- JFK – AED 670 / $182 USD
- Sydney – AED 670 / $182 USD
Etihad has said 10 Airbus A380s will be reconfigured with Economy Space during December 2018. During 2019 an additional 12 Boeing 777s and 21 Boeing 787s will have Economy Space seating.
Etihad may be trying to get ahead of Emirates who had already announced plans to launch a premium economy cabin. Emirates has chosen to create their own bespoke premium economy seat rather than buy an off-the-shelf option. The A380s being delivered in 2020 will be the first with the new premium economy cabin installed.
I flew on one of the converted A380 a few days after it launched and eschewed the charms of the upper deck to review the new Economy Space seating.