Emirates Launches Daily A380 Service To Switzerland

Dubai-based Emirates has launched a daily A380 service to Zurich, in a bid to meet growing demand from Switzerland, the airline announced in a statement.

The Swiss city became the 25th destination that Emirates will serve with its jumbo A380 jet.

Watch the A380’s inaugural landing at Zurich airport on January 8. Story continues below.

“Since commencing operations between Dubai and Zurich in August 1992, Emirates has carried 3.4 million passengers travelling between the two cities,” said Thierry Aucoc, Emirates’ senior vice president, Commercial Operations for Europe and Russian Federation.

“Deploying the A380, which allows us to bring 163 more passengers every day into Zurich – a 21.8 per cent increase – is central to helping us meet growing passenger demand in the market.”

The A380 will operate as flight EK 087 departing from Dubai International Airport daily at 0825hrs arriving in Zurich at 1220hrs. The return flight EK088 will depart from Zurich at 1435hrs arriving in Dubai at 2340hrs.

The aircraft offers 14 seats in first class, 76 seats in business class and 427 seats in economy class. Emirates also operates a second daily flight to Zurich using a Boeing 777-300ER bringing the number of seats on the route to 870 per day.

Stefan Conrad, COO of Zurich Airport, said: “Emirates’ decision to operate its flagship aircraft on one of its two daily flights to Zurich represents another milestone for Zurich Airport and demonstrates the strong demand from travellers for the Emirates product.

“The upgrade from a Boeing 777 operation to an A380 on the afternoon flight from Zurich is a significant capacity increase.”

Each Emirates A380 offers an onboard lounge on the upper deck for premium class passengers, while first class passengers also have two onboard shower spas. Passengers across all cabins have access to high speed Wi-Fi on the flight and 1,600 channels of ice, Emirates’ in-flight entertainment system.

Emirates has been operating the jumbo Airbus A380 for just over five years and has carried 21.8 million passengers to global destinations on the Airbus aircraft.

The airline, whose fleet currently includes 44 of the jumbo jets with 96 on order, is the world’s largest operator of A380s.

Emirates’ current A380 destinations include: Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow and London Gatwick, Los Angeles, Manchester, Mauritius, Melbourne, Moscow, Munich, New York JFK, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto, and Brisbane.

Emirates will start operating scheduled A380 services to Barcelona from February 2014.