Partnership and programme overview

In keeping young guests at heart and creating the little things to make their journey a little more special, Etihad Airways partnered with the award-winning theme park, Warner Bros. World™ Abu Dhabi, to launch a one-of-a-kind family focused experience onboard its fleet.

Etihad’s new ‘Little VIP’ programme recognises that young travellers are all very important people. The programme focuses on multiple touchpoints across the guest journey to make the travel experience an exciting one for children and an easier one for their parents. The park’s iconic animation characters like Scooby-Doo, and Looney Tunes including Sylvester and his beloved nemesis Tweety, are emblazoned across the children’s activity packs and dining products given to guests onboard.

Activity packs/gifts

The new children’s gifts are designed in three age ranges. For infants up to 2 years old, parents will be given a soft fleece blanket to use onboard and take home. Decorated with Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Sylvester, the vibrant colours and cartoon characters aim to keep the youngest flyers cozy on what could be their first flight or travel journey.

Young flyers aged 3 to 8 years, receive a Cartoon Junction themed passport holder and a bag featuring an activity book, a set of crayons and memory card game to keep the little hands and minds occupied.

The passport holder helps provide these young flyers a reminder of how fun travelling is and an identification at check in of their Little VIP status with Etihad.

The activity book features 14 different games and activities including ‘Spot the difference’, ‘Find the word’, ‘Colour me in’ and more revolving around the various Cartoon Junction characters.

The Memory card game includes 14 different sets of images that the child needs to remember as they flip each card. They can start small with a few cards and gradually work their way up to test themselves with all 14 sets of cards.

Tweens aged 9 to 13 receives a Scooby-doo themed backpack and passport holder. The pack includes everything they need to join Scooby-Doo and his crime solving gang on the Museum of Mysteries board game, designed around the incredibly immersive indoor theme park, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.

The board game is packed in a folder specifically designed to hold everything required for the game. Up to 4 travellers can play beginning by selecting which Mystery Machine vehicle they prefer. A paper dice in incorporated challenging the players to fold it into the familiar shape of a dice. Players roll the dice to commence the game as they make their way through the various areas of the Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi theme park earning Scooby snacks along the way. Players are also provided a pencil and scorecard pack to keep track of their scores through multiple rounds of the game.

The exclusive Scooby-Doo themed passport holder helps provide these young travellers a reminder of how exciting travelling is and an identification at check in of their Little VIP status with Etihad.

The backpacks have been highly sought-after by guests onboard and are being used post flight around the world by the airline’s young travellers.

Service/crew

In addition to the Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi’s themed inflight gifts, the comprehensive family travel experience is being brought to life, through cabin crew and ground crew training to identify and support family travel needs. At Abu Dhabi International Airport, a dedicated family check-in space will be available for families with minimised queuing to make family journeys as smooth as possible. Thoughtful touches include a small set of stairs at check-in counters meaning young eyes can take a peek and participate in the check-in process with ease.

Dining

Inflight, young travellers receive their meals first to help them get settled in. Each child receives their meal in a specially designed Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi themed box or bag alongside dining equipment with familiar characters. The cutlery pack is made of high quality reusable plastic and are provided as a giveaway for them to reuse post flight multiple times.

The menu has been enhanced based on consultation and feedback from family travellers and as a result requested traditional children’s favourites such as fusilli pasta with meatballs, waffles and pancakes have been added to the menu.

Out of Abu Dhabi, the desserts feature the various characters printed on white chocolate pieces.

Sustainability

In line with Etihad’s sustainability ambitions, the new children’s packs and dining experience have been designed with product purpose and reusability in mind. The kits and cutlery are designed to be taken away and treasured, encouraging children to feel excited about travelling with Etihad. The pack and all of its contents have also been designed without the need for individual packaging, avoiding the use of single use plastics. Where required, an alternative material to single use plastic is used. Additionally, the blanket is made of recycled water bottles further reinforcing the airline’s commitment to sustainability.

Inflight Entertainment (IFE)

Young flyers will also be kept amused on board by a bespoke children’s section on Etihad’s inflight entertainment, designed in a fun, kid-friendly format. A wide selection of family-friendly Warner Bros. movies and TV shows including Space Jam, Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny and the Flintstones are available as well as a selection of TV shows for older kids from the DC Universe including the likes of Batman, Justice League and Teen Titans.

In addition, an extensive selection of music albums for kids is complemented by a variety of e-games for avid gamers, which can also be played seat-to-seat.