At Your Service: Etihad Airways Unveils the World's First Flying Butlers

image

Sean Davorean, the Savoy Hotel’s head butler, stands with newly-trained Etihad Airways butlers. (Photo: Harry Page Images)

Forget flying nuns, these days it’s all about the flying butler.

Etihad Airways has upped the ante for in-flight service by adding the world’s first flying butlers. Thirteen cabin crew (11 men and two women) were handpicked to complete a three-week course on etiquette, protocol, valet skills, and concierge services facilitated by London’s prestigious Savoy Hotel.

image

A sitting area in the Residence (Photo: Etihad Airways)

The new butlers will look after flyers in the airlines’ luxurious cabin called The Residence, available on the A380 aircraft. Tickets for this luxury three-room suite cost about $20,000. They feature a double bed, living area, and shower cubicle.

Related: A Behind-the-Curtain Look at an Over-the-Top New $20,000 (One Way!) Airplane Cabin

Sean Davorean is the Savoy’s head butler and led the training which took place at the London School for Hospitality and Tourism. He told the Daily Mail that the newly trained butlers, who all previously worked as in-flight chefs or food and beverage managers, were ready to provide highest level of hospitality “by blending the discretion of a traditional English butler with the efficiency of a 21st century personal assistant.”

The Etihad Airways butler service will begin on December 27 with a flight from Abu Dhabi to London’s Heathrow Airport.

The airline will receive three more of the A380 aircraft in 2015 which will fly from Abu Dhabi to London and Sydney. Service to New York will follow. 

image

A bedroom in the Residence (Photo: Etihad Airways)

Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on FacebookTwitter, and Pinterest.