Emirates is an airline that truly loves its stunts. Earlier this year, the airline filmed its new advert at the top of the world's tallest building. Now, the A380 giant is looking to fly a promotional jet low over the city of Dubai to promote the World Expo currently taking place in Dubai.
The World Expo recently opened in Dubai. The event had been planned for 2020, but it was postponed for obvious reasons, like most significant gatherings. Emirates is a crucial partner for the event, providing a wealth of advertising. Now, it is going one step further.
Low Dubai flyover planned
Tomorrow, an Airbus A380 wearing the airline's first full special livery will take to the skies from Dubai International Airport. However, it won't be flying to one of the airline's growing number of A380 destinations. Instead, the jet will stay right where it is, in the skies above the city.
Emirates revealed that the giant of the skies would take to the air for a couple of flypasts of the Dubai Expo event and surrounding areas. The flypasts will take place between 05:00 and 08:00 on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th of October.
Emirates is encouraging people to take pictures of the giant aircraft as it passes over the city and to share their images online. In this way, the stunt will generate additional publicity for the Expo. However, the airline has been explicit that people must not fly drones in the vicinity of the display. The airline commented,
"People are reminded not to put the flypast at risk by using drones and to comply with all GCAA guidelines pertaining to ‘no fly zones’ for unmanned aircraft/drones."
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Not the first Expo flyover
Despite being a significant partner of the Dubai Expo, Emirates won't be the first to have flown over the site in a celebratory manner. Last week the RAF's Red Arrows display team flew over the area as part of the UK's participation in the event.
It also won't be the first stunt that Emirates has performed over the city with the giant of the skies. In 2015, the airline flew one of its A380s over the city as part of a formation flight. However, it wasn't flying in formation with other aircraft. The colossal aircraft was actually flying alongside a couple of jetpack pilots. This stunt had to be carefully coordinated to ensure that the jetpack pilots avoided the huge wake generated by the giant aircraft. It also involved several Dubai agencies.
While tomorrow's flypast undoubtedly required co-operation and careful planning, it's not quite as daring as some of the airline's other stunts.
Will you be looking for the Airbus A380 flying low over Dubai? Let us know in the comments below!