Airbus delivers A380 to Emirates

Emirates Airline has taken delivery of its first Airbus A380 superjumbo ahead of its first flight from Dubai to New York on August 1st.

Emirates, based in Dubai, is the largest customer for the double-decker A380. It currently has a total of 58 superjumbos on order and expects to receive another four A380s by next March.

The first commercial A380 flight to the USA will take off from Dubai on August 1st at 11.00 and is scheduled to arrive at New York JFK airport at 16.45 local time. The non-stop flight takes 14 hours.

After the inaugural trip to New York, the Emirates A380 will make stopovers in San Francisco and Los Angeles for familiarisation flights.

Emirates’ new A380 is the first to enter service with Engine Alliance GP7200 engines. On taking delivery of the plane, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, said:

"Our congratulations to Airbus for having created a greener, cleaner, quieter and smarter aircraft. The future has arrived, and we are very proud to be playing a leading role in it."

As it takes delivery of its next A380s, Emirates will deploy them on flights from Dubai to Heathrow and Dubai and Sydney-Auckland. A one-third scale model of Emirates’ A380 was unveiled at Heathrow airport earlier this month. It is thought to be one of the largest scale aircraft models ever built.

Written by: Nick Purdom

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