Emirates has flown the first Airbus A380 into Hamburg.
The Hanseatic City becomes Emirates’ 50th global A380 destination – one day after the A380 introduction into Osaka, Hamburg’s long-time friendship city.
The first and currently only scheduled commercial A380 service into Hamburg is deployed on the morning service EK059/EK060, while from 30 October, the A380 will be regularly deployed on the afternoon service EK061/EK062.
Celebrating the new A380 service between Hamburg and Dubai, Emirates chefs created a special menu giving passengers a taste of the region with dishes such as Minced Veal Steak and Hamburg Pannfish, as well as a sweet pastry, Franzbrötchen served in all classes.
With its existing multiple daily A380 services into Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf, Emirates is now operating all German gateways with its A380 fleet, making Germany the second most important country in Europe for the Emirates A380 after the UK. Emirates started operating daily Hamburg flights in March 2006 and introduced a second daily service from September 2011.
The deployment of the iconic double decker aircraft represents a capacity increase of over 22 percent on the route. Emirates now offers business and leisure passengers from the North of Germany an even greater choice of travel options to Dubai and to over 150 destinations beyond, highlighting Hamburg’s importance as part of the airline’s global network.
Emirates’ Airbus A380 aircraft serving the Dubai to Hamburg route offers high levels of comfort and high-quality service: a total of 517 seats in a three-class configuration, with 427 spacious seats in Economy on the main deck, 76 fully flat-bed seats in Business and 14 First Class Private Suites on the upper deck. The Emirates A380 is renowned for its First Class Shower Spas as well as the Onboard Lounge for First and Business Class passengers, arguably the most popular social spot at 40,000 feet. Passengers in all classes enjoy free Wi-Fi to stay in touch with family and friends and Emirates’ multi-award winning ice inflight entertainment with over 3,500 channels of movies, TV programmes, music and podcasts on the industry’s biggest personal screens in each class of travel. First and Business Class passengers also benefit from a complimentary chauffeur drive service as well as access to Emirates’ global network of airport lounges, including a 900m² lounge facility at Hamburg Airport.
As Hamburg becomes the 50th destination on Emirates’ global network to be served by the A380, passengers travelling from the Hanseatic City can enjoy a seamless A380 to A380 experience via Dubai to Auckland, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo and many more.
All Emirates A380s are being fitted at Airbus in Hamburg including significant cabin interior work and final livery, and are being delivered from Hamburg. Emirates is by far the largest Airbus A380 operator on the planet. With a current 105-strong A380 fleet and an order backlog for 57 additional aircraft combined, Emirates’ commitment to the A380 programme is worth over US$ 60 billion. In January 2018, Emirates ordered a further 36 A380s worth US$16 billion, further generating catalytic benefits for European economies with the airline’s impending deliveries beyond 2020. The Emirates A380 programme supports manufacturing jobs across the global aircraft manufacturing supply chain, and Airbus estimates that Emirates’ A380 orders support 41,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Europe, including some 14,500 in Germany alone. The estimated impact of Emirates’ A380 investment contributes €3.4 billion to the European GDP.*
From 30 October, flight EK061 will become an A380 flight, leaving Dubai (DXB) every day at 15:00hrs and arriving in Hamburg (HAM) at 19:05hrs. The return flight, EK062, departs Hamburg at 21:00hrs and lands in Dubai at 06:20hrs the next morning (all times are local). The daily flight pair EK059/EK060 between Dubai and Hamburg will remain Boeing 777-300ER operations.
N.B. Photo acknowledgements: Michael Penner, Stephan Wallocha, Harald Poppendiek
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