Emirates takes delivery of first super jumbo

Emirates Airline has just taken delivery of the first of its A380 super-jumbos ordered from Airbus, in time for its inaugural flight to New York from Dubai on 1 August.

Emirates is based in Dubai, and to date is Airbus’s largest single customer for the double-decker A380 aircraft. The carrier currently has 58 super-jumbos on order, with the next four to be delivered by March of 2009.

The world’s first commercial A380 flight to the US will leave Dubai at 11.00 on 1 August, with a scheduled arrival at New York’s JFK Airport at 16.45 east coast time – a 14 hour non-stop flight.

After arriving in New York, the Emirates A380 will continue on to San Francisco and then Los Angeles on familiarisation flights.

Emirates Airline’s new A380 is the first to be equipped with the Engine Alliance GP7200 engine. The chairman and chief executive of the Emirates Airline and Group, Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, said when taking delivery of the A380:

“Our congratulations to Airbus for having created a greener, cleaner, quieter and smarter aircraft. The future has arrived, and we are very proud to be playing a leading role in it.”

When Emirates takes delivery of the next super-jumbos, it will deploy them on flights to Heathrow and Sydney Auckland, both originating in Dubai. A model of the Emirates A380, at one-third size, was unveiled recently at Heathrow airport early this month, and stands in the roundabout at the airport entrance. It is reputed to be one of the largest aircraft scale models ever to have been built.

www.emirates.com