Dubai: Emirates airline will reintroduce the Airbus A380 to Perth from December 1, as the carrier ramps up its services to Australia.
The deployment of the jumbo-jet will increase Emirates’ seating capacity between its hub Dubai and Perth, with close to 500 seats available on each flight.
EK420 from Dubai will depart at 02:45, arriving in Perth at 17:20 the same day while EK421 flight will depart from Perth at 22:20, arriving in Dubai at 05:25 the following day. The daily A380 service will replace the existing daily Boeing 777- 300ER operation between the two destinations.
“Emirates has seen a strong increase in passenger bookings to and from Australia with significant demand across all its cabins, particularly following the launch of its Premium Economy which was first introduced on one of its daily Sydney services on August 1,” said the airline in a statement.
“The European summer has been the biggest driver of demand for Emirates, with European cities making up eight of its top 10 destinations Australians are currently flying to,” said Emirates.
Topping the list is UK followed by Italy, France, Greece, and Ireland making up the top five. Spain, Lebanon, Germany, Netherlands and Turkey round out the top 10 destinations.
Perth route
Since its inaugural flight to Perth back in August 2002, Emirates has flown close to six million passengers between Perth and its Dubai hub. Initially started as a four times weekly service, the airline expanded its Perth operations due to strong demand for travel. This grew to a daily operation in May 2003 and was followed by the opening of Emirates’ first Perth lounge in February 2006.
