Summary
- Emirates has 15 615-seat Airbus A380s.
- They will be flown to 12 destinations from Dubai this winter.
- Yet, three destinations will account for more than half of the flights.
In less than two months, on October 27,
Emirates
and other northern airlines will switch to winter schedules based on IATA slot seasons. While Emirates’ 615-seat Airbus A380 network has been explored for this summer, winter analysis has not yet been conducted. Consider this a snapshot of its plans as of August 30. But first, a summary.
Its 615-seat A380s
Emirates’ double-decker quadjets have a staggering seven configurations, perhaps the greatest number for any type with any airline worldwide. It would be easy to say it might be challenging to manage and allocate them, but the difference in seats for most layouts is mainly in economy.
Photo: Omid Behzadpour I Shutterstock
Emirates’ A380 seats vary from ‘just’ 484 in the airline’s relatively new and lowest-capacity four-class layout to 615 in its two-class config. The latter has no first class and 58 business seats—far fewer than other layouts—counterbalanced by packing in many more economy seats. According to ch-aviation, it has 15 615-seat aircraft, which entered revenue service in 2015.
There are 557 seats in bog-standard economy. For context, that’s more than the total seats on its other six configurations and more than any other airline’s A380 capacity.
Where they’ll be flown this winter
Unsurprisingly, Emirates’ 615-seaters are used on very high-volume, lower premium, and typically more leisure-driven markets, whether wholly or at certain times of the year or on certain flights.
Like airlines tend to do in more leisure and lower-yielding markets, it has traded much higher seat volume for lower seat revenue. If yields are lower, volume must usually be higher to offset it.
Like other northern carriers, Emirates will operate winter schedules between October 27, 2024, and March 29, 2025. The 615-seater will be flown to 12 destinations between November and February, as shown below. Notice the few places with almost no services.
Some routes, especially the top three, have one or two days with triple-daily flights on the 615-seater, mainly around Christmas and the New Year. I have not included them to make the table more readable. Such deployment makes sense as first-class will be in less demand then.
|
Dubai to… |
615-seat A380 one-way flights: November-February* |
% of route’s flights on them** |
Dept. from Dubai |
Dept. from destination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Bangkok |
Double daily |
40% |
03:50, 22:35 |
02:00, 09:30 |
|
London Gatwick |
Double daily |
67% |
02:50, 14:25 |
09:40, 20:25 |
|
Manchester |
Double daily |
67% |
02:40, 14:30 |
08:50, 20:40 |
|
Birmingham |
Daily |
50% (all flights have no first class) |
07:40 |
13:40 |
|
Bali Denpasar |
Daily |
50% (all flights have no first class) |
03:25 |
19:50 |
|
Düsseldorf |
Daily |
50% |
14:40 |
20:45 |
|
Taipei |
Daily (but first-class-equipped A380s on seven December days) |
94% (nearly all flights have no first class) |
03:40 |
23:40 |
|
Kuala Lumpur |
Daily (from January 1) |
16% |
10:40 |
01:25 |
|
Mauritius |
Six weekly (first-class-equipped A380s used on Fridays) |
43% |
10:00 |
22:30 |
|
Frankfurt |
Fridays only |
5% |
15:15 |
21:10 |
|
Amman |
Tuesdays only |
7% |
14:15 |
18:30 |
|
Casablanca |
December 14 only |
0.8% |
07:25 |
15:05 |
|
* Subject to change. Details from Dubai |
** Emirates only; all aircraft types |
Three routes have over half of the flights
Nearly 1,400 take-offs on 615-seat aircraft will occur from Dubai International in the examined four months, with Bangkok, London Gatwick, and Manchester having more than one in two services. But for these markets, things would be very different in terms of the existence of the configuration.
The 615-seat layout is only used on some of the 12 routes’ flights. First class is far less critical to the markets but still significant enough to warrant it sometimes. I wonder how aircraft availability plays into it. Only Taipei comes close to being all-615-seater, with more than nine in 10 of Emirates’ passenger flights seeing that configuration.
Photo: Wirestock Creators I Shutterstock
Notice Bali Denpasar, which first saw the A380 in June 2023. Between September 1 and October 26, 2024, Emirates will increase the type’s flights to a record double daily, with the 615-seater deployed on both services. While that’s not in the period examined here, it’s nonetheless significant.
From October 27, the 615-seat double-decker will coexist with the non-first-class Boeing 777-300ER. Curiously, Cirium indicates that it flew first-class-equipped A380s to Bali briefly—presumably, it was insufficiently pleased with the results relative to where else such aircraft could fly.