Emirates has 5,011 departures from Dubai in April, according to its latest schedule filing. That's down by 3% versus what it had planned last week. It's from an accumulation of multiple small cuts, including the postponement of Denpasar (Bali) until May 1st. Elsewhere, Emirates has made some aircraft swaps and routing changes, including to the A380, some continuing what is currently being done.

What's the latest?

Examples changes are highlighted below. They include Emirates ceasing to fly the A380 to Hamburg for most of April, with its second-daily flight to the German city to see the B777-300ER instead. It comes about four months after Hamburg once again saw the double-decker quadjet. The A380 will also not serve Hong Kong until May 1st, although it is likely to be pushed back again subject to the opening up of the country.

  • Dubai to Hamburg: currently 1x daily A380 and 1x daily B777-300ER. But there's no A380 in April (except on 1st and 2nd), with the route 2x daily B777. The A380 returns from May 1st
  • Dubai to Johannesburg: had planned 2x daily A380 in March onwards but it'll remain 1x daily A380 and 1x B777-300ER. From Dubai, Johannesburg is non-stop, but the B777 will continue to route via Durban back to the UAE. Johannesburg returns to 2x daily A380 non-stop in both directions from May 1st
  • Dubai to Durban: was set to be non-stop in both directions from March. However, it’ll continue to operate via Johannesburg from Dubai and non-stop to the UAE. Durban returns to non-stop in both directions from May 1st
  • Dubai to Hong Kong via Bangkok: the A380 was to replace by the B777-300ER, but the swap has been pushed back to May 1st
  • Dubai to Bangkok: was expected to be 2x daily A380, but remains 1x daily A380 and 1x daily B777-300ER until May 1st
  • Dubai to Denpasar: resumption pushed back to May 1st; will be 5x weekly
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Mumbai is back on the map for many international airlines. Photo: Getty Images.

Emirates to Germany

The Gulf carrier serves Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich in Germany, with bilateral agreements limiting its network. In March, all four cities have two-daily flights, with the A380 operating two-thirds of departures, according to the latest OAG data.

April will have 5% fewer departures to Germany, based on Emirates' latest schedule filing. On the 4th, 6th, 25th, and 27th, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, and Munich will have a once-daily service rather than two. Frankfurt will continue to have two.

Despite all the temporary and small changes, the proportion of Emirates' double-decker flights to Germany will rise to three-quarters in April.

Dubai to Hamburg EK59
Emirates will temporarily stop using the A380 to Hamburg on April 2nd. When writing on March 1st, EK59 (which left Dubai in the main Europe-bound bank) is operated by A6-EOE, delivered just before Christmas 2014. Image: Flightradar24.

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Emirates and Bali

Emirates launched Denpasar in June 2015, a route that played an important role in growing seats for sale between Middle East hubs and Bali to almost 700,000 in 2019. It mainly had a 2x daily service that year, although a dozen days saw 3x daily.

According to booking data, over 300,000 passengers transited Dubai, especially bound to/from Amsterdam, London Gatwick, Paris CDG, Manchester, London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Cairo, Munich, and Prague. The distance of Bali-Dubai-Johannesburg is 49% longer than a non-stop would be.

Are you planning to fly Emirates this year? Let us know in the comments.