United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Emirates Airline has announced it will introduce an Airbus A380 on a second of its three daily rotations between Dubai and Manchester from the start of next month as it continues to grow capacity in the UK market. The new deployment will be made possible by the switch of an A380 currently deployed on a second of its three daily flights between Dubai and Rome, which will revert to being operated a Boeing 777-300ER from the start of February 2015.
Emirates first introduced the Super Jumbo onto its Dubai - Manchester route from September 1, 2010 and it currently operates its other two daily rotations with Boeing 777-300ER equipment. From February 1, 2015 the EK019/EK020 afternoon Dubai departure and evening Manchester flight will be upgauged to the A380, increasing Emirates’ capacity from Manchester by 13 per cent in the process, with over 20 per cent of this increase across the premium cabins.
The introduction of the second A380 into the Manchester market will mean that half of Emirates’ 16 daily flights to the UK will be operated by an A380 from the start of next month. The carrier will utilise one of its 517-seat versions of the aircraft on the route offering 14 seats in First Class, 76 in Business Class and 427 in Economy Class.
“Manchester is the third busiest airport in the UK and demand for flights to Dubai, and beyond, has increased significantly during our 25 years of operating out of the airport,” said Laurie Berryman, vice president, UK, Emirates Airline.
The introduction of the second daily A380 aircraft will help more leisure and business passengers to travel in and out of Manchester Airport, the only UK airport outside of London that the A380 is scheduled to serve.
Here’s the airline’s new schedule on the route from February 1, 2015...
DUBAI – MANCHESTER
EK021 DXB0300 – 0700MAN 77W D
EK017 DXB0720 – 1120MAN 388 D
EK019 DXB1435 – 1835MAN 388 D
MANCHESTER – DUBAI
EK022 MAN0845 – 1945DXB 77W D
EK018 MAN1320 – 0030+1DXB 388 D
EK020 MAN2025 – 0740+1DXB 388 D
The deployment of the A380 on the EK019/EK020 service was currently only scheduled until the end of the winter schedule on March 28, 2015 but has now been extended beyond this date into summer 2015.
“This additional flight confirms Manchester as the northern gateway and highlights the ongoing demand from passengers to fly from Manchester Airport. It is testament to the success of our Fly Manchester campaign and the strength the airport offers long-haul carriers.” said Ken O’Toole, chief commercial officer, Manchester Airports Group (MAG).
Our analysis of passenger data for the Manchester – Dubai sector shows that more two thirds of passengers are continuing their journeys on from Dubai International Airport with point-to-point demand accounting for 27.7 per cent of passengers in the 12 months until November 2014.
Dubai is the largest single destination market for all passengers on the route with a 28.1 per cent share of traffic, but eight other markets generate flows of greater than 10,000 annual passengers: Bangkok, Hong Kong, Perth, Islamabad, Sydney, Singapore, Mauritius and Mumbai.
Despite adding capacity to the Manchester – Dubai market in 2003 with the addition of a third daily frequency and in 2010 with the deployment of the A380 on the first of its three daily flights, Emirates has reported strong loads, averaging above 90 per cent in five of the last ten years. In 2013 estimated loads were 90.1 per cent from Dubai and 90.3 per cent from Manchester.
In the chart, below, we look at passenger demand between Manchester and Dubai over the past ten years. The data shows a growing market with spikes in traffic in 2007 (20.2 per cent), 2010 (22.6 per cent) and 2012 (35.3 per cent). Traffic levels have grown an average 16.1 per cent a year over the past ten years with growth in 2013 recorded at 6.7 per cent.
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