Emirates A380 carries over 105m passengers in 10 years

Dubai: Emirates Airline marked on Wednesday 10 years of Airbus A380 operations.

Since its first flight to New York from Dubai on August 1, 2008, the Emirates A380 has carried over 105 million passengers, clocking more than 1.5 billion kilometres on 115,000 flights.

Emirates, the world’s largest operator of the A380 aircraft, has 104 aircraft of that model flying to 49 cities, with another 50 A380s on order. Of those 50 on order, 36 A380 aircraft were ordered by Emirates in January this year in a $16 billion (Dh58.7 billion) deal.

At the time of that order, Airbus said it was committed to producing A380s for at least another 10 years following Emirates’ programme-saving deal.

The A380 model had not received orders in over two years before that, with Airbus earlier saying it would have to stop producing A380s if it did not work out a deal with Emirates.

As the Dubai-based airline marked 10 years of operating A380s, Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, said the aircraft had “a significant impact on the aerospace industry,” fuelling hundreds of thousands of jobs.

“The aircraft continues to boost tourism and trade wherever it flies by stimulating further traffic and demand, and we hope that it continues to play an important role in the economies and societies that it serves in the years to come,” Clark said in a statement.

Emirates currently operates the world’s shortest A380 route from Dubai to Kuwait, and the longest A380 non-stop route from Dubai to Auckland, the carrier said.