Emirates is continuing to grow its Airbus A380 network. With the changeover to the IATA winter timetable planned for Sunday, October 31st, six more routes are set to welcome the Airbus A380 once more. The returning flights will allow Emirates to exceed 1,000 rotations with the giant of the skies in November.

Emirates is hard at work, proving that the Airbus A380 still has a place in the post-pandemic aviation industry. With the airline's entire 777 fleet already busy for some time, the airline has to use the A380 to add capacity now. By the end of the year, it hopes to have reactivated around 50 A380s and restored 70% of its capacity.

Six more A380 routes

Emirates will relaunch A380 flights to six destinations on Sunday. Some of these have seen the A380 since the height of the pandemic but have lost the jet again somewhere along the way. According to schedule data from Cirium, the A380 will return to the following routes:

  • AMS - Amsterdam - The Netherlands
  • GRU - Sao Paulo - Brazil
  • HAM - Hamburg - Germany
  • JNB - Johannesburg - South Africa
  • MAD - Madrid - Spain
  • MXP - Milan - Itlay
Emirates, Airbus A380, Return
The Emirates A380 network with returning routes in red. Photo: Cirium

Each of the routes will operate daily through November, except for Milan, which has just 22 rotations scheduled for the month. With the addition of the above routes, Emirates will fly the Airbus A380 to 25 destinations from its Dubai home.

Increased capacities on other routes

While the A380 is returning to these routes, other routes will see increased capacities from Sunday. Frankfurt will be to welcome a double-daily Airbus A380 from Sunday. Meanwhile, Vienna's capacity will increase, with 38 rotations planned for November, up from a daily A380 rotation in October.

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Vienna is one of just six routes that won't have a firm daily (30) or double daily (60) rotation with the A380 in November. Other routes which have different numbers of rotations are,

  • LHR - London Heathrow - 180 rotations
  • DME - Moscow - 55 rotations
  • DUS - Dusseldorf - 44 rotations
  • VIE - Vienna - 38 rotations
  • MXP - Milan - 22 rotations
  • YYZ - Toronto - 21 rotations
  • CAN - Guangzhou - 4 rotations
Emirates, Airbus A380, Return
Emirates Airlines first A380 arriving on February 03, 2009 in Sydney, Australia. After its very first flight from Dubai to Sydney and onto Auckland, New Zealand the aircraft was on the ground for 90 minutes before leaving for the flight to New Zealand.

Penultimate A380 expected

November will be another exciting month for fans of the airline's premium economy cabin. Emirates will take the penultimate A380 ever to be delivered during the month, meaning one more aircraft with the premium cabin will join the fleet. One would expect Emirates to bring an A380 with premium economy to the Dubai Airshow. It could be this aircraft, depending on its delivery date.

According to ch-aviation.com, the airline currently has four A380s with the cabin, all delivered within the past year. The final two deliveries will boost this to six aircraft. Each of the aircraft equipped with premium economy contains four classes. At the rear on the main deck are 338 economy seats, preceded by 56 premium economy seats at the front of the cabin. On the top deck, alongside the bar at the rear of the aircraft, are 14 first class suites, followed by 76 business class seats.

Have you flown on an Emirates A380 in the past two years? Let us know in the comments!