A380 Emirates celebrates 5th anniversary

A number of readers have already experienced it, a flight with the A380 to Bangkok. The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger aircraft in the world. Emirates is celebrating its 5th anniversary of operating this aircraft.

This widebody aircraft has two floors and can accommodate up to 853 passengers. With an average configuration, 555 people fit.

Bangkok

Emirates was the second airline to make commercial flights with the A380. The first aircraft was delivered on July 28, 2008. From August 1, commercial flights between Dubai and New York JFK started. Since 1 August 2012, Emirates has been flying daily with the A380 between Dubai and Amsterdam (Schiphol). Over the past five years, Emirates has carried more than 18 million passengers on its double-decker A380. Today, Emirates flies this aircraft to no fewer than 21 destinations, including Amsterdam, London Heathrow, Rome, Moscow, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Auckland.

The fleet of 35 A380s is manned daily by 7.000 cabin crew and some 670 pilots. In the past five years of operation, nearly 20 million meals have been served during 20.000 trips, spanning 265 million miles. A total of 37 airports were visited, either for scheduled flights, one-off special occasions or due to diversions.

The most popular item among passengers who have ever flown in the upper deck of the A380 with Emirates is the Onboard Lounge. Both Business and First Class passengers meet here to exchange stories or do business over a drink at 40.000 feet. All Emirates A380s are equipped with WiFi, so there is always full connectivity to the ground.

The A380's longest non-stop route within the Emirates network is to New York, a 11.023km flight that takes 13 hours 26 minutes. The shortest A380 route is between Hong Kong and Bangkok, a distance of 1900 kilometers with a flight time of two hours and 20 minutes.

Remarkable

Some other remarkable facts are, for example, that since August 1, 2008, 14 million sandwiches have been loaded on Emirates A380 flights departing from Dubai, 157.000 vases of fresh flowers, 538.500 jars of baby food, more than 1 million toothbrushes and more than 4 million tea bags. Emirates is the world's largest operator of the A380. In addition to the current fleet of 35 aircraft, the airline currently has 55 A380s on order.

Coinciding with this milestone, Emirates has partnered with Google to launch the first street view from an A380, the world's largest aircraft. This makes it possible to walk online through the onboard lounges, shower spa, cockpit and much more.