Dubai’s Emirates announces Airbus A380 flights to Hamburg

Dubai carrier Emirates has announced it will begin flying the Airbus A380 on its Hamburg service from later this year.

The superjumbo will begin its inaugural service on October 29 for the carrier’s morning flight before being regularly deployed on the afternoon service the day after.

Emirates said the plane would increase capacity on the route by more than 22 per cent.

Each way the plane will offer 426 economy class, 76 business class and 14 first class seats.

“The switch to the A380 offers a total of 1,120 additional seats per week in each direction, meeting a growing demand from travellers on the route and demonstrating our commitment to Hamburg,” said Emirates vice president, North and Central Europe, Volker Greiner.

“Enabling an increase in passenger numbers will also result in additional tourism revenues for Hamburg and its wider region, which in turn will mean boosting the local economy and job creation.”

The new A380 service, EK061, will leave Dubai International at 3:00pm and arrive in Hamburg at 7:05pm. Return flight EK062 will leave Hamburg at 9:00pm and arrive in Dubai at 6:20am the next day.

Morning flight pair EK059/EK060 will continue to be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER.

Emirates is by far the largest operator of the A380 and services 48 other destinations with the aircraft.

It has 103 superjumbos in its fleet and 59 on order worth a combined $60bn.

In April, Emirates president Tim Clark said the airline would likely commit to options for 16 more of the jets “sooner rather than later” under a $16bn deal for 20 planes finalised in February.

That agreement secured the future of the A380 programme for at least another decade after a lack of orders meant Airbus was considering its future.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates to exercise Airbus A380 options “sooner rather than later”