Emirates has received its 50th A380 aircraft, strengthening its position as the world’s largest international airline.
This latest delivery takes Emirates’ all wide-body fleet to 224 aircraft, representing the world’s largest fleet of A380s, and also the world’s largest fleet of Boeing 777s.
After the entry of its 50th A380 aircraft into service by early August, Emirates will offer a total of 5.7 billion available seat kilometres (ASKMs) on a weekly basis to 145 destinations which span the globe from Los Angeles to Auckland. Since April 2010, Emirates has received 96 aircraft (all A380s and Boeing 777s), increasing its overall capacity by 64% in ATKMs and 71% in ASKMs, while consistently maintaining seat load factors of close to 80%. During this period, Emirates also added 48 cities to its global destination network.
Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline, said, “Emirates has seen tremendous organic growth in the past 4 years, probably the fastest of any airline in history. We’ve literally added capacity equivalent to what some mid-sized airlines operate, but more significantly, we have maintained high seat loads and profitability. This speaks to the strength of our world-class product, and also our business model which is based on an efficient global hub that connects Dubai to the world, and almost any two cities in the world via Dubai.” He added, “The A380 has been very successful for us, and this is reflected in the strong customer interest and high seat factors wherever we’ve deployed the aircraft. The A380 has helped us serve customer demand on trunk routes, operate more efficiently at slot-constrained airports, and also introduce new concepts on-board that have redefined the flying experience. Moving forward, we will see quite a ramp up in the delivery programme and by late 2017 we will have around 90 A380s in our fleet to support existing and new A380 routes.” John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer- Customers, said, “The A380 is pleasing its operators by increasing passenger traffic, strengthening load factors and improving their market share. The delivery of the 50th A380 to Emirates shows the profit enhancing capabilities of this aircraft and the extraordinary vision of Emirates and Sir Tim.”
Source : WAM News Agency for United Arab Emirates
