Emirates is currently deploying around 30 A380s to 15 destinations, operating 129 weekly services this summer as announced last month on destinations to Europe, North America, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. The airline was operating only 15 to 20 A380s every single week in June.
The Dubai-based carrier expects to bring its Airbus A380s back to Australia and New Zealand late this year. The airline has already started selling superjumbo tickets between Dubai and Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth.
Emirates last operated its Airbus A380 to Sydney on June 22 last month. Emirates Airbus A380 made an unusual appearance at Sydney Airport last month. Although the Dubai-based giant used to operate a couple of A380s daily on flights to Sydney, this has become an unusual experience amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Emirates A380-800, with registration A6-EOM, operated flight EK414 from Dubai International (DXB) to Sydney Kingsford (SYD) on Tuesday, June 22.
The superjumbo departed Dubai (DXB) at 02:26 local time on Tuesday, arriving in Sydney (SYD) at 21:54 local time on the same day, with a flight time of 13 hours and 28 minutes, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.com.
Emirates flight EK414/EK415 has been normally operated by a Boeing 777-300ER after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, on June 22, it was substituted by an Airbus A380, probably due to the full planeload of passengers.
After spending 24 hours on the ground, the superjumbo departed Sydney at 21:26 local time as flight EK415 on Wednesday and landed back in Dubai at 5:30 local time on Thursday, June 24.
This Airbus A380-800, with registration A6-EOM (MSN 187), was delivered to the airline back in August 2015 and is currently 6.3 years old. It is configured in a three-class configuration with 14 seats in first class, 76 in business class, and 401 in economy class.
Before this flight, Emirates last sent its Airbus A380 to Sydney in November last year, carrying Australian and Indian cricketers on board. None of its EK414 or EK416 flights was operated by an A380 this year. Emirates will add a daily A380 flight between Dubai and Sydney, complementing the existing Boeing 777-300ER five weekly flights from November 1, 2021. The airline is also gearing up for a connection between Sydney and Christchurch.
