Emirates airline plans to fly an A380 on Riyadh route as Airbus double-decker gets busy

Dubai: Emirates airline will fly its Airbus A380s to 27 destinations by the end of November as travel restrictions ease. The A380 – the world’s largest commercial aircraft – is being currently deployed by Emirates to 16 cities.

Emirates said its total fleet of A380s will reach 118 by year-end, including six aircraft equipped with Premium Economy seats in a 4-class configuration. The airline, which currently flies to over 120 cities, said plans to restore 70 per cent of its capacity by the end of the year were on track with the return to service of more than 50 A380 aircraft.

“The Emirates A380 remains highly sought-after by travellers for its spacious and comfortable cabins to make the journey a memorable experience,” said Emirates in a statement. “The airline is gradually and responsibly deploying its popular aircraft in sync with passenger demand as the travel industry continues on its path to recovery.”

With the addition of 11 routes to the A380 network by November, as well as extra frequencies on the most popular ones already served by the aircraft, Emirates is poised to offer close to 165,000 additional A380 seats to customers. Over the next six weeks, Emirates will reinstate its A380 services to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Johannesburg, Madrid, Milan, Riyadh (subject to government approvals), Sao Paulo and Zurich.

The flagship aircraft’s services to Istanbul are scheduled to launch on October 1, set to become the first-ever A380 operation in Turkey. Emirates is scaling up operations across its network to meet the surge in customer demand to Dubai as well as other destinations that allow quarantine-free entry for specific nationalities and vaccination status.