Summary

  • Emirates and Qantas operate the stopping services.
  • Each route has fifth freedom traffic rights.
  • Dubai-Milan Malpensa-New York JFK welcomed back the Airbus A380 in February 2024.

Four one-stop Airbus A380 routes exist. Two of the destinations are exclusively served via somewhere. For the others, the one-stop options supplement non-stop flights to enable higher frequencies, connectivity, competitiveness, and market share.

The A380-operated stopping services

Examining OAG data for July to December 2024 indicates that only Emirates and Qantas fit the bill, as shown below.

  • Emirates: daily Dubai-Sydney-Christchurch (Christchurch is only served by the carrier on a one-stop basis)
  • Emirates: daily Dubai-Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Hong Kong (supplementing its non-stop Hong Kong flights)
  • Emirates: daily Dubai-Milan Malpensa-New York JFK (the A380 returned in February 2024; it coexists with its non-stop JFK services)
  • Qantas: daily Sydney-Singapore-London Heathrow (the world’s longest A380 route)
One stop A380 routings.jpg

Image: GCMap

All four routes have fifth freedom rights, enabling each carrier to tap into other commercially relevant markets. However, the complete routing’s higher costs, complexity, and longer duration, which reduce competitiveness, somewhat counterbalance this.

Emirates A380: Dubai-Milan-JFK

The Middle East carrier operates triple daily flights to JFK, making it one of its most-served long-haul destinations. All flights use the double-decker quadjet: two are non-stop, and the third is via Milan. It arrives in JFK via Italy at 18:55 and departs at 22:20.

After Emirates flew Dubai-Hamburg-JFK on the 777-300ER and A340-500 until 2008, it exclusively flew non-stop to the Big Apple. That changed in 2013 when flights via Milan materialized. While initially on the 777-300ER, the A380 appeared two years later. Even with COVID-related changes, the double-decker has operated three in four of Emirates’ Dubai-Milan-JFK services.

Related

50 Destinations: Where Emirates Is Flying The Airbus A380 From Dubai

It has up to 78 daily departures from its hub in the peak summer.

In the peak summer of 2024, all airlines have five to seven daily Milan-JFK/Newark flights, up from four in the summer when Emirates began. Given this much greater competitiveness, it’d be interesting to see how much the carrier’s ‘A380 effect’ on demand and yields has been diluted.

What about Christchurch?

Emirates added Christchurch, New Zealand’s second most populous city, to its route map 20 years ago in July 2004. It initially served the South Island airport on the A340-500 via Melbourne before switching to operating via Sydney in 2005.

Airbus A340-500 Emirates

Coinciding with the switch to the 777-300ER, Christchurch was served with two stops for years until October 2016. It routed Dubai-Bangkok-Sydney-Christchurch and vice versa. Ouch! Double ouch for those passengers who connected in Dubai, too, routing, say, London Heathrow-Dubai-Bangkok-Sydney-Christchurch.

The A380 made its first scheduled appearance in Christchurch in October 2016, when Emirates reverted to operating Dubai-Sydney-Christchurch and vice versa, which continues to this day.

Emirates Airbus A380

Photo: Tom Boon | Simple Flying

In July 2024, winter in New Zealand, the long service is scheduled as follows, with all times local:

  • Dubai-Sydney: EK412, 10:15-06:05+1 (13h 50m block)
  • Sydney-Christchurch: EK412, 07:50-12:55 (3h 5m)
  • Christchurch-Sydney: EK413, 17:45-19:05 (3h 20m)
  • Sydney-Dubai: EK413, 21:10-05:40+1 (14h 30m)

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