Emirates to upgrade all its London flights to A380

Dubai carrier Emirates has announced that it has upgraded its eight daily services to London to be serviced by an A380.

The upgrade will be effective from January 1, 2016, a statement said.

Combined with the airline’s double daily A380 services to Manchester, Emirates will offer 70 A380 flights per week into the UK, more than any other country on the Emirates network.

The third A380 into London Gatwick will replace Emirates flights EK011/EK012 from January 1, 2016.

“In the last five years we have increased capacity into London by over 25 per cent,” said Emirates divisional senior vice president, commercial operations west Hubert Frach.

“This demonstrates the attractiveness of the A380 with its ability to serve customer demand at slot-constrained points without the need for adding another frequency.”

Emirates has steadily grown its London A380 operations since first deploying the aircraft on a scheduled service to Heathrow in December 2008 – the second A380 destination to join the airline’s network.

The eighth A380 service into London is another major investment for Emirates in the UK, where it operates 119 weekly flights via six gateways; London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow.

The airline already operates an A380 to all its daily flights to London Heathrow.

The UK is a significant market for Emirates as it helps boost passenger traffic in its hub in Dubai, a popular transit point for passengers to India and other Asian destinations.

Emirates currently operates its superjumbo jet to 35 destinations across its network with Copenhagen joining the airline’s A380 network from December 1.