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Carry on: Etihad's flying hotel suite takes to the air

Miami-based businessman and aviation enthusiast Gino Bertuccio has been on dozens of milestone flights

Nevil Gibson
Wed, 24 Dec 2014

Miami-based businessman and aviation enthusiast Gino Bertuccio booked the world’s first flight in The Residence, Etihad's "flying hotel suite" that has been installed in its new fleet of Airbus A380 aircraft. The suite has a living room, double bedroom and ensuite shower. Mr Bertuccio also had a Savoy Academy-trained butler on call throughout the duration of the inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi International Airport to London Heathrow Airport on December 27.

Previous reports say the cost of the two-person suite is up to $US43,000 for some flights. Mr Bertuccio runs Ligi Import Corp, which sells personal care products in the US, Latin America and the Caribbean. He has been passionate about flying since a very young age and flew on his first inaugural 25 years ago. He has since travelled on 22 inaugural and final flights in premium class cabins.

He is an avid collector of airline memorabilia with nearly 2000 model airplanes, as well as albums filled with boarding passes, certificates and photos from past flights.

 

Jetstar links Gold Coast, Fiji
Jetstar will fly three times weekly between Gold Coast Airport and Nadi, Fiji, from March 31. It will ne the first low-fares airline on the route and will offer more than 50,000 seats a year. Starting fares will be from $A199 one-way during select travel periods.

Emirates runs biggest wide-bodied fleet
Emirates Airline will round off 2014 with the world’s largest wide-body passenger fleet of 218 aircraft, after adding its 50th A380 and its 100th 777-300 ER.
 Ten new A380 destinations were added from Dubai to Zurich, Barcelona, London Gatwick, Kuwait, Mumbai, Frankfurt, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, Milan and Houston. One-off A380 services went to Glasgow, Manila, Tehran and Vienna. Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, says since January 2014 it has carried over 45 million passengers and operated an average of 3516 flights per week. Eight new destinations were added:  Kiev, Taipei, Boston, Abuja, Chicago, Oslo, Brussels and Budapest. Emirates has three A380 daily flights from Auckland to Dubai and beyond via Australia as well as a daily Boeing 777-300ER service from Christchurch.  eight.

Route news of the week
Qantas will operate a one-off charter between Perth and Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen for the Gallilpoli centennial, leaving on April 21 and returning on April 28. The aircraft will be a Boeing 747-400. Qatar Airways will boost its Doha-Cape Town route to daily from fives times a week from October 26, 2015, using Boeing 787-8 aircraft. Qatar is also increasing the capacity on its routes to Milan, Rome and Venice by replacing A320s with larger aircraft, such as Airbus A330 and Boeing 787. The afternoon departure from Doha will be reduced from seven to four weekly, while morning departure increases to daily. The changes occur from March 29, 2015.

 

Nevil Gibson
Wed, 24 Dec 2014
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Carry on: Etihad's flying hotel suite takes to the air
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