Etihad Airways is set to deploy its Airbus A380 aircraft on the Abu Dhabi-Paris route. 

The superjumbo will operate from July on one of the carrier’s twice-daily services from the UAE to the capital of France.

Paris becomes the airline’s latest A380 long-haul destination following London, Sydney, New York and Melbourne.

With the 496-seat aircraft upgrade from a 328-seat Boeing 777, Etihad Airways will offer an all-A380 daily service from Paris to both Melbourne and Sydney via the airline’s Abu Dhabi home base.

The additional capacity will provide business and leisure travellers from France with more opportunities to visit Abu Dhabi.

It will also support the strong connecting traffic to and from many cities across Asia and Australia from Abu Dhabi including Brisbane, Perth, Bangkok, Chengdu, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Manila, Shanghai, Seychelles, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai.

Flight EY31 has a scheduled departure time from Abu Dhabi at 02:15 which arrives at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport at 07:50.

The return flight, EY32 takes off from the French capital at 10:40 and arrives in Abu Dhabi at 19:30.

Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways chief executive, said: “We believe that our customers travelling to and from Paris will really enjoy what we see as unparalleled comfort and services on board our A380.

“Flying our flagship aircraft to France helps fulfil growing demand and offers greater travel experiences for the flying public.

“Paris is one of our busiest and best performing European routes, so the deployment of this upgraded service will provide benefits to travellers to and from Abu Dhabi, and our popular connecting cities across Asia and Australia.”