Big gets better as Emirates doubles Heathrow A380 services

Tuesday, 20 December 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Emirates will become by far London Heathrow’s largest A380 operator in 2012 with four of the double-decker aircraft to serve the airport daily.

Following last month’s announcement of a third daily A380 flight from 24th January 2012, Emirates will launch a fourth A380 service from 25th March next year.

The deployment means four of Emirates’ five daily Heathrow flights will be served by the A380 – twice as many as any other carrier.

From 24 January 2012, the A380 will operate flight EK029 to London Heathrow – leaving Dubai at 0940hrs and arriving in London at 1330hrs. From 25 March 2012, the double-decker also will operate flight EK005, which departs Dubai at 1545hrs and arrives in Heathrow at 2015hrs. Both services are currently flown by a Boeing 777-300ER.

“This demonstrates the beauty of the A380 – its ability to increase our service to our passengers in style, and without adding traffic to London Heathrow’s busy schedule,” said Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe & Russian Federation.

“We would like to acknowledge the support and cooperation of the Heathrow authorities in bringing a fourth A380 to the British capital.”

The Emirates’ A380 first touched down in the UK in December 2008 when it commenced a daily service to Heathrow. In June 2010, a second A380 was introduced on the route and in September last year, the airline inaugurated an A380 service to Manchester – the first time any airline had scheduled the aircraft from a regional airport.

The Emirates’ A380 offers 14 flat-bed First Class Private Suites with electrically operated doors and 76 fully-flat mini-pods in Business Class – all with aisle access – on the upper deck. Downstairs, there are 427 comfortable contoured seats in Economy Class, spread across four separate cabins.

Passengers in all classes have a choice of over 1200 channels of films, television programmes, music and games carried on the ‘ice’ entertainment system.

A personal satellite phone is fitted to each seat, which also carries a seat-back SMS and email service, along with seat to seat calling and a ‘My USB’ personal picture viewing facility.