India's Bengaluru Airport is gearing up to receive its first-ever A380 commercial flight today. The South Indian airport was scheduled to receive the superjumbo service from Emirates from October 30th. But in a surprise move, the airline has chosen October 14th for its first A380 service to the city.

Two weeks early

Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) will receive its first-ever Airbus A380 aircraft today when Emirates flight EK 562 lands at 15:40 local time. The airline had initially announced October 30th as the launch date for the A380 service to the city but has chosen today for the historic flight.

The airport also updated its Twitter account, stating that its engineers and operations team are testing the infrastructure and processes. Bengaluru is one of four Indian airports in India equipped to handle services from the A380 airplane. The other three include Delhi (DEL), Mumbai (BOM), and Hyderabad (HYD).

BLR will also be the third airport in the country, after Delhi and Mumbai, to receive the A380. Mumbai sees daily A380 departures to Dubai (DXB) and Singapore (SIN) operated by Emirates and Singapore Airlines, respectively, while Delhi also has a daily scheduled Singapore Airlines A380 service.

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Schedule

According to FlightRadar24.com, today's fight EK 562 will be operated by the A380 registered as A6-EVP. The flight has a scheduled departure of 10:00 local time and an arrival of 15:30 local time in Bengaluru.

At the time of writing, the flight had just departed from DXB.

Interestingly, this seems to be the only A380 flight to Bengaluru for the next two weeks, as Emirates' website reveals that the next A380 service to BLR will be as per the initial schedule on October 30th as flight EK 568, which departs at 21:25 and lands at 02:30 the next day.

It's quite possible that Emirates wants to test the airport's preparedness through this flight to enable any last-minute adjustments before regular superjumbo services start on October 30th.

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New experience

Emirates has stated that the daily A380 flights to Bengaluru will operate with an aircraft in a three-class configuration, offering seats in economy class in addition to premium cabins in business class and first class. In a statement released last month, it said,

“The aircraft upgrade will allow customers travelling to and from the South Indian city to enjoy its signature services across a broader network. Bengaluru will be the second city in India to be served by the iconic Emirates A380 aircraft, with customers enjoying the signature experience on the Dubai – Mumbai route since 2014.”

The city will also continue to receive twice-a-day service from Emirates' Boeing 777 aircraft alongside the A380s daily rotations.

Are you excited about Bengaluru receiving its first-ever A380 flight? Please leave a comment below.

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