The Airline is set to launch Premium Economy this December as it takes delivery of first of three A380s to be delivered this month.
The Airbus A380 will continue to form the backbone of Emirates’ operations for the next decade despite the massive drop in travel demand this year, which has seen airlines around the world retire their superjumbos early.
That is according to Emirates’ president, Sir Tim Clark, who said the superjumbo would return to more routes on the airline’s network in the coming months.
Emirates on Saturday received the first of three A380s being delivered this month, which will take its fleet of double-decker aircraft up to 118 – more than any other airline in the world.
One of the aircraft being delivered will also feature Emirates’ long-awaited Premium Economy Class.
“The A380 will remain our flagship for the next decade, and we will re-deploy it on more routes as travel demand returns,” Sir Tim said.
“The A380 has helped us efficiently serve customer demand at slot constrained airports and also on trunk routes, supporting our long-haul hub operations. Importantly, with the space and technology on this aircraft, we’ve been able to introduce new concepts on-board that have transformed the flying experience for the better.
The A380 recently returned to Emirates’ network after months of being grounded because of coronavirus.
Emirates’ A380 currently flies to Cairo, Amman, Paris, London, Guangzhou, Manchester and Moscow and recently services have been ramped up to four daily A380s on London Heathrow and daily flights to Moscow.
The double-decker is also being utilised as a ‘mini-freighter’ on select cargo charter operations to transport urgently required cargo across the Emirates network.
Sir Tim has long been a supporter of the A380 and told revealed in November that Emirates is likely to benefit more from the superjumbo post-Covid when other airlines drop the aircraft from their fleet.
“A380s remain hugely popular with the travelling public,” he said. “And with less of them around now I should think we will do particularly well with this aeroplane when we get them all flying again.”
Emirates is one of the few airlines that has been able to operate A380s profitably.
Global airlines including British Airways, Air France and Qantas have already decided to retire the A380 from their fleets, saying that the aircraft is too expensive to run in the wake of the pandemic. They will instead focus on newer, more efficient widebody jets like Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s.
“The A380 was probably the best thing that could have happened to Emirates and certainly Dubai,” Sir Tim said.
“We value it enormously, we regret the fact it’s gone out of production, but that is testament to the strength of our business model, where others have tried to use it and failed.
“It’s been enormously successful for us, in many, many ways, directly and indirectly. So we will have to manage eventually the departure of the aeroplane. But we’re a long way off from that.”
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