Emirates doubles up on Heathrow double-decker
11-Mar-2010 Emirates is to add another A380 to its London Heathrow route from 1st July this year, making the popular superjumbo experience more widely available to passengers.
The airline brought its own brand of double-decker, equipped with an Onboard Lounge and Shower Spas, to the British capital in December 2008.
In addition to the daily EK 001 from Dubai, the A380 will also be deployed on EK 003, which departs Dubai at 1415hrs and arrives in London Heathrow at 1840hrs.
Salem Obaidalla, Emirates' Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe & Russian Federation, said: "This is an important development for Emirates as this is the first route where we have made a long term commitment to double up on the double-decker."
Mr Obaidalla added: "London Heathrow was one of the key airports we had in mind when the A380 was first conceived and the new deployment allows more passengers travelling to and from the British capital to experience this remarkable aircraft."
The giant 517-seat aircraft offers 14 flat-bed First Class Private Suites with electrically operated doors, 76 fully-flat seats in Business Class - all with mini bars and aisle access, and 427 comfortable contoured seats in Economy - spread across four roomy cabins on the lower deck.
Passengers in all classes can lose themselves in the quietness of the aircraft and the much-enjoyed ice entertainment system. There are more than 1000 channels of on-demand entertainment including 200 movies from around the world, 100 TV channels, more than 500 audio channels, 100 video games and BBC news, sports and business headlines.
A personal satellite phone is fitted to each seat, which also carries a seat-back sms and email service, along with seat to seat calling and a "My USB" personal picture viewing facility.
Emirates, which has won more than 400 international awards for its products and services, is now operating eight A380s. In addition to London Heathrow, they fly to Toronto, Paris, Jeddah, Bangkok, Seoul, Sydney and Auckland.
Emirates operates 98 non-stop flights per week to the UK. As well as five flights a day to London Heathrow, it operates daily services to Newcastle and Glasgow, a double daily to Manchester and Birmingham and three flights a day to Gatwick.
On 28th March, the airline's 100-plus destination route network will be extended to Tokyo, followed by Amsterdam in May, Prague in July, Madrid in August and Dakar in September.
Doubling the double-decker offering to London Heathrow
EK001 departs Dubai daily at 0745hrs, arriving in Heathrow Terminal 3 at 1215hrs. The return flight, EK 002, departs Heathrow daily at 1415hrs, arriving at Dubai International at 0005hrs the following day.
EK 003 leaves Dubai at 1415hrs and arrives in London Heathrow at 1840hrs. Dubai-bound, EK 004 leaves Heathrow at 2040hrs and gets into Dubai at 0630hrs the following day (effective 1st July, 2010).