Dubai’s Emirates to introduce A380s on all Beijing and Shanghai services

Dubai airline Emirates has announced plans to fly all-A380 services to Chinese cities Beijing and Shanghai to meet passenger demand.

The carrier said from July 1 its second daily flight to Being Capital International Airport, EK308/309, and second daily flight to Shanghai Pudong International, EK304/305, would be upgraded from a Boeing 777-300ER to the Airbus superjumbo.

The double deckers will be in a three-class configuration with up to 519 seats.

The carrier currently has 38 weekly flights to China including services to Guangzhou, Yinchuan and Zhengzhou.

Emirates is the world largest operator of the A380 with 95 in its fleet and a further 47 on order.

It has announced several A380 upgrades to routes in recent months including from Dubai to Melbourne in Australia, Narita in Japan, Sao Paolo in Brazil, Madrid in Spain and Cannes in France.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates to fly only A380 jets to Spain

However, the plane has proven less popular with other carriers, forcing Airbus to scale back production.

In late December, Emirates said it would be postponing deliveries of 12 craft following an agreement with supplier Rolls-Royce.

Read: Airbus’ superjumbo A380 heading towards ‘certain death’ – analyst