Etihad Airways will put the Airbus A350-1000 on its Abu Dhabi–Paris Charles de Gaulle EY031/032 pair through Northern winter 2026/27, AeroRoutes reported on September 29, 2026. From October 25, 2026, to March 27, 2027, those two flight numbers are filed with the A350-1000 instead of the Boeing 787-9 pattern that had been in the earlier schedule. Etihad still plans about 18 weekly flights on the Paris route overall, so other flight numbers continue to show 787-9 metal around the A350-1000 core.
The winter filing published by AeroRoutes lists EY031 leaving Abu Dhabi at 02:25 and arriving CDG at 06:45 daily on the A350-1000, with EY032 returning from Paris at 09:55 for a 19:35 Abu Dhabi arrival. Parallel 787-9 frequencies remain on EY033/034 and on day-of-week variants of EY035/036, giving Paris a mixed widebody bank rather than an all-A350 schedule. For passengers, the practical change is which morning and midday rotations pick up Etihad's larger A350-1000 cabin—and its associated premium product—versus the 787-9.
Abu Dhabi–Paris is one of Etihad's densest European trunk routes, and swapping the lead pair to A350-1000 is a capacity and product signal for the winter leisure and connecting season. The A350-1000 typically gives Etihad more seats and a newer cabin generation than older 787 configurations still in the fleet, which matters on a hub-to-hub link that feeds both French point-of-sale and India/Asia connections over Abu Dhabi. Keeping 787-9s on the remaining frequencies preserves schedule depth without requiring enough A350-1000s to cover all 18 weekly flights.
Schedule watchers should treat the September 29 AeroRoutes filing as operational intent for the IATA Northern winter window, not a permanent fleet assignment. Gulf carriers routinely reshuffle widebody types between European cities as deliveries, maintenance and commercial campaigns move. The important near-term facts are the dates—October 25 through March 27—and the specific flight numbers EY031/032 that flip from the earlier 787-9 plan to A350-1000.
Competitive context on CDG remains busy with Air France, and with other Gulf and Asian carriers offering one-stop options into France. Etihad's answer for winter is more A350-1000 presence on the flagship morning pair inside an already thick 18-weekly bank. Corporate and premium leisure traffic that values the A350 cabin will want to target those flight numbers when booking; travelers who only need a seat to Paris can still use the 787-9 rotations on the same city pair.
Operationally, daily A350-1000 utilisation on EY031/032 through the winter implies a stable tail assignment and catering/crew pattern into CDG Terminal alignments Etihad already uses. Any further upgrade of EY033/034 or the EY035/036 variants to A350-1000 would show up as later schedule diffs; none were in the September 29 report. For now the published change is narrow and clear: two flight numbers, one season, A350-1000 instead of 787-9.
Travelers holding winter tickets on EY031/032 should check managed seating and cabin maps as the October 25 switch approaches, because seat counts and suite layouts differ between Etihad's A350-1000 and 787-9 fleets. Until Etihad issues a consumer-facing product note, the AeroRoutes schedule filing remains the firm public source for the aircraft change on Abu Dhabi–Paris.
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