. Emirates receives Airbus A380

With the 50th Airbus A380 entering active service in the Emirates fleet on August 1, the seat capacity will increase so that the carrier provides weekly 5.7 billion km seats to 145 destinations stretching from Los Angeles in the west to Auckland in the east.

Since April 2010 until today, Emirates has received 96 new aircraft, all of them Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 models, increasing the total capacity by 64 per cent in terms of tonnage kilometres, and 1 per cent in terms of seat kilometres. At about 80%, Emirates Airlines also added 48 new stations to its network during this period.

Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline, said: “Emirates has experienced tremendous growth over the past four years, perhaps faster than any other airline in the history of civil aviation. We have added capacity equal to a medium-sized airline.”

He added, “We have maintained high seat occupancy rates and profitability, thanks to our innovative, high-quality products and our unique business model, which is based on our strategic location in Dubai and our ability to connect any two cities in the world via Dubai.”

Sir Clark said: “The operation of the Airbus A380 in our fleet has been a resounding success, which is the strong customer demand and high solvency on all the routes that this giant aircraft operates on.”

They pointed out that the Airbus A380 helped meet the demand for high-density lines and work more efficiently in airports that suffer from congestion, in addition to enabling the introduction of new concepts that greatly improved the travel experience.