Emirates Airbus A380 touches down in Hamburg
Emirates, the world’s largest international airline, has recently expanded the network of destinations served by its highly-popular Airbus flagship aircraft with the launch of the first and only scheduled commercial A380 service into Hamburg.
The inaugural Emirates A380 flight, led by Hamburg-born Captain Hauke Smid and UAE national First Officer Sultan Hussain, departed from Concourse A, the world’s first purpose built A380 terminal, at Dubai International Airport on Monday morning and was welcomed with a water canon salute in Hamburg by a VIP delegation from both cities, including Dr. Peter Tschentscher, First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and President of the Senate; H.E. Ali Abdulla Al Ahmed, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Germany; Michael Eggenschwiler, CEO of Hamburg Airport and Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
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.
To commemorate the inaugural arrival in Hamburg today, the A380 is deployed on the morning service EK059/EK060, while from 30 October, the A380 will be regularly deployed on the afternoon service EK061/EK062.
The Hanseatic City becomes Emirates’ 50th global A380 destination - one day after the A380 introduction into Osaka, Hamburg’s long-time friendship city.
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 most served European country by 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 travellers 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.
“We are excited to be the first airline to offer scheduled A380 services into Hamburg - and to finally bring our flagship aircraft ‘home’, as all our A380s are being fitted at Airbus in Hamburg. This year marks the tenth year of Emirates’ A380 operations. This aircraft has become one of the most recognisable and admired ones in the world, loved by over 105 million passengers that have experienced the Emirates A380 to date and sets the benchmark for travel comfort in commercial flying”, says Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
“We look forward to offering the award-winning Emirates A380 experience to our customers flying from the North of Germany. The switch to the A380 offers a total of 1,127 additional seats per week in each direction, meeting a growing demand from travellers on the route and demonstrating our commitment to Hamburg. Our A380 service will boost tourism and trade for Hamburg and its wider region by stimulating further traffic and demand”, continues Thierry Antinori.
“The decision of Emirates to offer a daily service to Hamburg with the A380 is a clear commitment to Hamburg as an important destination in international aviation. The increased seating capacity will expand the connection Hamburg-Dubai and strengthen the importance of the Hamburg Airport in their international route network”, said Dr. Peter Tschentscher, First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and President of the Senate.
According to Michael Eggenschwiler, Chief Executive Officer of Hamburg Airport, the airport is delighted about the Emirates A380. “Today, at Hamburg Airport, we are celebrating an inaugural flight that we have been looking forward to eagerly for a long time,” he says. “From today, Emirates is the first airline to use an Airbus A380 for scheduled services to our airport. The world’s largest airliner is now flying the daily evening flight on our popular Hamburg-Dubai route. The deployment of this impressive aircraft is the logical result of the consistently high load factor on the Dubai flights. For passengers, this means even more comfort and an even better product offering.”
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.
* According to Frontier Economics analysis carried out in 2015