New Year A380 Expansion for Emirates

United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Emirates Airline has doubled its Airbus A380 capacity to New York’s John F Kennedy International and Paris’ Charles De Gaulle airports with twice daily Super Jumbo rotations now operating into both cities from its Dubai International hub. From January 1, 2013 the carrier has introduced a 487-seat version on its EK203 / EK204 New York rotation while a 517-seat variant was introduced to Paris - a route served 19 times weekly, twice daily with A380s and five times weekly with a 777-300ER.

“The decision to commit a second A380 to both New York and Paris is a clear indication of customer demand, for the state-of-the-art aircraft and these two popular destinations,” said Thierry Antinori, Executive Vice President, Passenger Sales Worldwide, Emirates Airline. “New York and Paris are both important routes for Emirates and its customers. Adding larger capacity aircraft is central to helping us meet growing passenger demand and will also boost economic support for American and French international commerce.”

The capacity growth on the Dubai – New York service will introduce an additional 1,848 seats per week into the market, including an enhanced premium offering. On the Dubai – Paris CDG link Emirates will boost its own capacity by 46.0 per cent versus last year as it further boosts its dominance on the route which is also served by Air France on a daily basis.

With the world’s largest fleet of A380 aircraft at 31 and another 59 on order, Emirates continues to set the pace for A380 deployment. In the four years since the Emirates A380 has been in operation over 11.5 million passengers have flown on the aircraft, covering 169 million kilometres. In 2012 alone, Emirates added 11 A380s to its fleet.

The Emirates A380 fleet currently serves 21 destinations with new cities set to be announced in the coming months. On February 24, 2013 and March 1, 2013 the carrier will also operate the A380 on one-off scheduled flights on the Dubai – Barcelona route. It has also opened the world’s first purpose-built A380 facility at Dubai International Airport, allowing faster boarding and smoother connections. The first departure took place on January 2, 2013.

In the table below we highlight Emirates’ A380 deployment from Dubai International Airport, ranked by the number of flight departures since the type made its scheduled debut with the carrier in August 2008 up until December 2012. The airline has used the type on schedule flights to 30 destinations (including Auckland which is served via Melbourne and Sydney and thus does not appear in our analysis). In 2008 Emirates operated 130 A380 departures from Dubai International Airport, growing to 1,137 in 2009 (up 774.6 per cent year-on-year), 2,760 in 2010 (up 142.7 per cent year-on-year), 4,495 in 2011 (up 62.9 per cent year-on-year) and 6,316 in 2012 (up 40.5 per cent year-on-year).