Emirates, the world’s largest Airbus A380 operator, has commenced its new A380 service between Dubai and Cairo on Wednesday. The airline becomes the first airline to operate A380s on scheduled flights to Egypt.
The Airbus A380 will be deployed on flights EK 927/928, which were previously operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. It can carry a total of 516 passengers, including 76 in Business and 14 in First Class. Emirates’ other two daily flights to the Egyptian capital remain to be operated by Boeing 777s.
Adel Al Redha, COO of Emirates, describes Egypt as a “significant destination for [Emirates] in the region“. Therefore, besides the aircraft change, the carrier is planning to increase the service to Cairo from 21 to 25 flights per week, starting on October 28. Emirates started its service to Cairo more than 30 years ago, in April 1986, just one year after the carrier was founded. So far, the airline has transported more than 7,3 million passengers on the route between the two cities. In 2018, Emirates opened a lounge for premium passengers at Cairo Airport.
As the largest customer of the Airbus A380 aircraft, the Gulf carrier currently has 112 Airbus A380 aircraft in its fleet. A further eleven A380s are still on order, with six scheduled deliveries in this financial year. Furthermore, the airline has outstanding orders for Boeing 777-8 and 777-9 jets. Emirates also placed orders for Airbus A330-900neo and A350-900 in February, while cancelling most of its remaining Airbus A380 orders.
Read more: Emirates launched its shortest Airbus A380 service in July.
Jarne is a Germany-based contributor for IFN.news.
