Emirates To Launch A380 On Three New Routes Next Week

Dubai-based Emirates is all set to launch the jumbo A380 jet on three new routes in the first week of December, the airline said in a statement.

It will deploy the jet on routes to San Francisco, Milan and Houston from next week. With these three latest additions, Emirates A380 route network will total 33 destinations from Auckland in the East to Los Angeles in the West.

“Emirates now has 55 A380s in its fleet, one third of all A380s currently in the skies,” said Hubert Frach, Emirates divisional senior vice president, commercial operations West.

“Having the ability to launch three new A380 destinations in three days is no small feat. It requires careful planning, multi-department coordination, airport preparedness and above all the tenacity to make it happen.”

About 11 new A380 aircraft have joined the Emirates fleet this year, the company said.

The airline has also launched nine new A380 destinations in the past 12 months with its most recent ones being Mumbai, Frankfurt, Dallas and Kuwait. The superjumbo was also launched for a one-off showcase to cities such as Glasgow, Manila, Tehran and Vienna.

Over 32 million passengers have travelled in its A380 till date, the airline said.

Among its many features, the superjumbo has first class suites, 14 private cabins that also include shower spas and an on-board lounge where passengers from first class and business class can socialise during their flight.

Emirates, which is the largest operator of A380s worldwide, has over 10,000 cabin crew and 900 flight deck crew specially trained to operate its growing A380 fleet. It also has another 89 A380 planes on order, as of November.

Recently, the airline’s chief executive Sir Tim Clark said that Emirates is willing to purchase more A380s if aircraft manufacturer Airbus updates the jumbo jet with more fuel-efficient engines by 2020.

But despite Emirates’ interest in expanding its A380 fleet, Airbus has said that there are no immediate plans to revamp jet engines.