Am I right in thinking that with Virgin Australia leasing a 777 to Etihad they are dropping Abu Dhabi flights?

Am I right in thinking that with Virgin Australia leasing a 777 to Etihad they are dropping Abu Dhabi flights?

They are only wet leasing the aircraft during the time it would have been sitting on the ground in AUH so it makes sense to make more money by using the a/c in its down time.

As rob1984 said, the wet-lease of the 777 to Ethihad is so that they can utilise the aircraft on a flight between Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur once per week, in time when the aircraft would otherwise have been sitting on the ground in Abu Dhabi for 3 days (the flight from Sydney lands on Friday, it departs again on the Sunday, if I recall correctly).

So basically, they'll be maintaining the 3 weekly services SYD-AUH, but the wet lease is just so that they're not wasting a plane for three days.

Okay so just to clarify the 777 will remain in Virgin Livery with the Virgin product? Or is it essentially being turned into an Etihad 777? 

HI Thecdec1308, they will remain in Virgin Australia livery and product. They are just being wet lease once a week to save them sitting on the ground at AUH

Okay thankdf for clearing that up for me guys!!! I fly with Etihad/Virgin quite a bit to Europe and I prefer flying Virgin and was worried I had lost them!!

Lucky Etihad economy passengers who'll be getting Virgin Australia's Premium Economy...unlucky business passengers who get downgraded from Etihad's direct aisle access business to Virgin's 2-3-2.