Etihad to Fly the A380 to Toronto this June with an Interesting Twist
by Krish Patel
There’s some really interesting news involving the Etihad Airways Airbus A380 superjumbo. Etihad will begin flying the A380 from Abu Dhabi to Toronto in June of this year. However, the Emirati flag carrier will pull the aircraft type from one of its major routes.
At the start of the pandemic, Etihad Airways grounded the Airbus A380 with plans to retire it permanently. However, the airline had changed its mind in 2023 and reintroduced the jet on flights from Abu Dhabi to London Heathrow. At the time, Etihad had no plans to fly the type to other cities, but that changed in April of 2024, when it resumed flights to New York’s JFK and a few months later, Paris CDG. Earlier this year, EY also started flying its A380s to Singapore Changi Airport. Now, Etihad has put Toronto on the A380 list.
Starting June 24, 2025, Etihad Airways will fly its superjumbos to Toronto Pearson International Airport, YYZ. The A380 will be seen on the airline’s daily flight connecting the Emirati capital and Canada’s largest city. Flight EY21 will depart Abu Dhabi at 2:40 AM and arrive at YYZ around 9:00 AM the same day. The return leg, EY22, will depart Toronto at 1:40 PM and arrive in Abu Dhabi at 11:00 AM. Currently, Etihad flies the Airbus A350-1000 to Toronto, and the A380 taking over the route represents a major passenger increase.
What is really interesting is that Etihad operates a small superjumbo fleet of only six A380s. With A380 flights to London, Paris, Singapore, and soon Toronto, one might wonder where Etihad is getting the A380s to operate this route. Well, it turns out that Etihad Airways is pulling the Airbus A380 from the New York JFK route. Once Etihad begins A380 service to Toronto, JFK will see both the airline’s Airbus A350-1000s and Boeing 787-9s. The Airbus A350 will take over flights EY1 and EY2, which currently see the A380. Although Etihad will stop flying its A380s to New York, this doesn’t mean that it's the end of Etihad offering First Class on flights to JFK. The airline will continue to fly its 3-class 787s on flights EY3 and EY4, which feature a First Class cabin in addition to already having Business Class and Economy.
Etihad being able to fly the A380s to Toronto comes at the expense of them not being able to fly the jet to New York. While Etihad will fly a larger aircraft to Toronto from the U.A.E., New York still has a lot of passenger capacity for flights from the Emirates. In addition to Etihad’s two daily flights from AUH, Emirates operates three A380 flights to JFK per day, including one that stops in Milan. The A380 helps maintain high levels of capacity for flights from the U.A.E. to Toronto, considering that there are more daily flights from the U.A.E. to New York, even if they don’t all see the superjumbo.