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Emirates continues to phase out older planes and deploy A380s on more and more of its routes.
On August 1, Emirates launched a daily A380 flight to Madrid, the airline’s 35th A380 destination. Copenhagen joins the A380 network from December 1.
From December this year, a 777-300ER will be switched to an A380 on an existing Bangkok route. This will mean four daily A380 services between Dubai and Bangkok.
From January 2016, Emirates’ eight daily flights to London will all be served by an A380.
Also from January 2016, EK47/48 to Frankfurt, currently operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, will be ‘up-gauged’ to an A380. This will mean two daily A380 services between Dubai and Frankfurt.
From March 2016, an A380 will replace a 777-300ER on the daily Dubai-Singapore-Melbourne route. As a result, Emirates will offer a total of six daily A380 services from Dubai to four Australian cities.
As of mid-August, Emirates had 65 A380s serving 35 destinations globally. Another 75 A380s remain on order.
The airline took delivery of 24 new aircraft in 2014 and 26 new ones are planned to enter service this year. Seven aircraft left service in FY 2014/15 and ten more are set for retirement in 2015/16.
As a result of new additions and retirements, the Emirates fleet now has an average age of 75 months per plane. The airline operates nearly 240 wide-body aircraft, across six aircraft types.
“Our modern and efficient aircraft not only help reduce environmental impact, but also enable Emirates to offer the latest facilities and provide our customers with a better onboard experience as well as the capacity we need to grow our operation,” said Adel Al Redha, executive vice president and chief operations officer, Emirates.
“Our investment in modern wide-bodied aircraft has always been the cornerstone of our strategy and success.”