Emirates doubles its A380 flights to London as demand climbs

Dubai: Emirates is to add another A380 to its London Heathrow route from July 1, making the popular superjumbo experience more widely available to passengers.

The airline brought its own brand of double-decker, equipped with an onboard lounge and shower spas, to the British capital in December 2008.

In addition to the daily EK 001 from Dubai, the A380 will also be deployed on EK003, which departs Dubai at 2.15pm and arrives in London Heathrow at 6.40pm.

Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' senior vice president, commercial operations, Europe and Russian Federation, said: "This is an important development for Emirates as this is the first route where we have made a long-term commitment to double up on the double-decker.

"London Heathrow was one of the key airports we had in mind when the A380 was first conceived and the new deployment allows more passengers travelling to and from the British capital to experience this remarkable aircraft."

The giant 517-seat aircraft offers 14 flat-bed first class private suites with electrically operated doors, 76 fully-flat seats in business class, all with mini bars and aisle access, and 427 comfortable contoured seats in economy.

The ice entertainment system features more than 1,000 channels of on-demand entertainment including 200 movies from around the world, 100 TV channels, more than 500 audio channels, 100 video games and BBC news, sports and business headlines.

Seat features

A personal satellite phone is fitted to each seat.

Each seat also carries an SMS and e-mail service, along with seat-to-seat calling and a "My USB" personal picture viewing facility.

Emirates, which has won more than 400 international awards for its products and services, is now operating eight A380s.

In addition to London Heathrow, Emirates flies to Toronto, Paris, Jeddah, Bangkok, Seoul, Sydney and Auckland.

It operates 98 non-stop flights per week to the UK.