Emirates Introduce Airbus to Dubai-Auckland Route

Auckland will become the first airport outside of Dubai – Emirates Airways hub airport – to have three Airbus A380 aircraft scheduled to be on the ground at the same time. Passengers flying to and from Auckland will have the opportunity to experience the Airbus A380 aircraft as the airline introduce the double-Decker jet to their Dubai-Auckland route operating via Brisbane.

No other airline apart from Emirates is operating A380 aircraft into Auckland with a regularly scheduled service – all three of the airline’s flights to Auckland will be operated by the A380s by October. By adding the Airbus to one of Emirates’ daily services to Brisbane there will be an increase in the total capacity of seats available onboard the aircraft. The current Boeing 777-300ER which operates on the service offers 354 seats; the introduction of the A380 will add a further 135 sets to the route. The A380s are configured with three classes of cabin including First Class, Business Class and the main cabin. There are 14 seats available for First Class passengers and 76 passengers available for Business Class passengers – the First Class cabin is located on the upper deck whilst the Business Class cabin is divided across the upper and lower deck.

The airline previously upscale their Auckland-Dubai route which operates via Dubai; this was completed in October. Back in 2009, the airline had introduced an A380 aircraft to their Auckland-Dubai route which flies via Sydney.

Emirates’ hub in Dubai is also home to the first concourse which was purpose built for the Airbus A380 aircrafts; no other airport outside of Dubai will have as many A380 aircraft available at one time as Auckland will. The Senior Vice President for Commercial Operations in Australasia and the Far East for Emirates spoke about the introduction of the double-Decker jet commenting that the Auckland-Dubai route which flies via Brisbane is a popular route for business travelers and that the load factor is currently operating at around 98%. The new service has thus been created to meet demands from business travelers, for more options to travel between Dubai and Auckland.

Emirates has been currently setting the pace for the deployment of A380 aircraft on popular routes; the aircraft have now carried over 14 million passengers on over 35,000 trips in the last five years. Last year, Emirates introduced 11 A380 aircraft to their fleet and is now the largest operator of the aircraft in the world. The aircraft is configured to include the three classes of cabin and provides First Class passengers with private suites to relax and work in throughout their flight, as well as Shower Spas to freshen up and an on-board lounge where they can enjoy a selection of nibbles and complimentary beverages. Business Class is equipped with mini-pods and seats which recline to full-flat beds.

Emirates began flying to New Zealand almost 10 years ago; since then the capacity on the services has grown significantly, along with the demand. From October, Emirates’ services to New Zealand will offer 1821 seats each day on flights to and from the country. Along with Qantas, there will be a total of six A380 services operating daily on flights to Dubai – offering business travelers a seamless travel and transfer experience through to the purpose built concourse at Dubai International Airport.

From Auckland, Emirates offer their business travelers easy connections to a number of important business destinations across Europe including Paris, Moscow, Amsterdam, London, Rome and Manchester. The announcement of the new service coincides with recent announcements from the airline that they have upgraded their Australian services; this includes an introduction of a daily service to Adelaide, one to Melbourne which operates the A380 and a Perth service which operates thrice daily. A second A380 will be introduced to Sydney in the summer.