As Abu Dhabi flag carrier Etihad transitions its flights to the massive new Terminal A at its home airport starting this week, it’s also unveiling a suite of beautiful new lounges, leaning into a modern aesthetic with local flair from Islamic art tradition and impressive design choices that consider when and how passengers will be using the lounge.
Encompassing three floors of the north side of the new terminal, the space is split into first and business class lounges, with three gates offering direct lounge-to-plane boarding.
The aesthetic throughout is very much a semi-residential feel, like a swanky top-notch hotel or luxurious apartment complex, and that feel comes through with a private lobby-style reception area for first class passengers. Impressively, the look and feel draw from a refined set of motifs that both lean on and expand the mid-2010s Facets of Abu Dhabi branding, still one of the strongest brands in the industry.
Etihad’s use of layered, direct and indirect lighting is especially impressive — the triangular chandeliers with triangular bulbs above the triangle-faceted welcome podiums are super, but they don’t take the theme too far, with gentle internally lit wall and hidden floor-level and ceiling-level accent lighting adding layers that bring real depth into the space.
Integrating the branding within the lounge has been successful and elegant. Image: Etihad
The Constellation Bar is another great example of this technique: the bar itself is a really beautiful 172-piece, 25m long bespoke glass lighting sculpture called “Panora”, and a cloud of tiny sparkling accent lights hanging from the ceiling above the bar add a real softness to the space.
The Constellation Bar is a stunning touch. Image: Etihad
Internal lighting in the steps on the main stairway, as well as the regional flavour (if you’ll pardon the pun) of the hanging octagonal lanterns and eight-sided star wall motifs in the buffet area, continue this design thread.
Layered lighting also appears in the buffet area. Image: Etihad
It’s a clever set of elevated design choices for a lounge that many passengers will be experiencing at night, given the flight banking structure of Etihad’s network operations creates many connections during the local nighttime.
While all the glossy PR snaps are in daytime, many passengers will be experiencing the space at night. Image: Etihad
Travellers in Etihad’s The Residence, its one-bedroom suite halo product in the ‘forehead’ area of the airline’s fleet of Airbus A380s, will be welcomed into individual Private Suites where they can ensconce themselves away from even the rarefied hoi polloi of the first class lounge.
Even the business lounge relaxation rooms echo the Facets branding, but not obtrusively. Image: Etihad
Non-Residence first class lounge guests, too, will be able to book themselves into the Private Suites if available — but here one wonders whether a less generic moniker than “Private Suites” might have been more sensible.
Between The Residence and First Class Apartments and Business Studios onboard the A380 alone, and the new A350 business class being branded as suites, the words ‘private’ and ‘suite’ risk becoming overused.
Elsewhere, the naming is indeed unique — and again in places returning to the residential, like “The Parlour” for chocolates, pastries and afternoon tea — including the Liwan Global Dining area, the Roof Lounge, and the Constellation Bar.
The space impressively matches the architectural design of the highly structural, organic Terminal A — which longtime readers will remember as the Midfield Terminal, originally intended to be open in 2017.
Its sprawling, sinuous four-armed shape sits to the northwest of the airport between its two runways, and feels very much like an entirely different generation of airport compared with the smaller, older three terminals along the southwest side of the runways.
In context, this new lounge feels like a natural part of Etihad’s return to positioning in the firmly premium end of the market: new terminal, new fleet of A350s with new business class suites, the return of the A380 and its two halo products, and new lounges for the faster transfer in the new terminal.
Tucking away the Games Lounge for the young, young-ish and young at heart is a smart idea. Image: Etihad
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Featured image credited to Etihad
