Emirates is celebrating ten years of A380 operations.
Since its first flight to New York from Dubai on August 1st, 2008, the Emirates A380 has carried more than 105 million passengers, clocking in more than 1.5 billion kilometres on 115,000 flights, equivalent to 39,000 trips around the globe.
The UK has the highest number of Emirates A380 passengers, nearly 20 million people who have flown on the Emirates A380 in the last decade.
The service is flown by Emirates from London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester in the UK, totalling 14 daily A380 services from the UK to Dubai.
Emirates is the world’ largest operator of the A380 aircraft, with 104 double-decker aircraft flying to 49 cities on six continents on scheduled services with more than 80 daily departures from Dubai, the airline’s hub.
In addition to its 104-strong fleet, the airline has a further 58 A380s on order.
Today, Emirates also operates the world’s shortest A380 route from Dubai to Kuwait and the world’s longest A380 non-stop route from Dubai to Auckland.
The airline has also grown its scheduled services to major airports and has also successfully grown demand at regional airports such as Manchester, Brisbane, Kuala Lumpur, Houston, Prague, Kuwait, Mauritius, Johannesburg and Sao Paulo.
Tim Clark, president Emirates Airline, said: “It’s been ten extraordinary years since the first Emirates A380 flight took to the skies, and today it has become one of the most recognisable and admired aircraft in the world.
“We remain committed to providing the best experience for our customers aboard our flagship aircraft, and introducing new innovations that will continue to ‘wow’ them every time they fly with us.”
In recent years, Emirates has kept the A380 programme alive.
As the only customer to place a significant order in recent years, Airbus has cut production to a minimum as it seeks commitments for new aircraft.