News

Emirates advances A380 Amsterdam flights

6 Jan 2016 by Alex McWhirter

Following the Dutch government’s approval (see news December 19, 2015), Emirates will inaugurate its double-daily A380 service to Amsterdam on February 1.

It had been thought Emirates would launch double-daily A380 flights in June but in a last minute change of plan it appears that the carrier has advanced the start date by four months. Although Emirates has yet to announce the news officially, flights are already available for booking.

February 1 is the earliest date approved by the Dutch government. Initially the latter had been wary about approving the extra daily A380 service because of opposition from the local pilots’ union and the fact that, like all governments, it wishes to look after the interests of its national airline.

But the Dutch later admitted that they had little choice in the matter seeing as the Dutch-UAE aviation treaty is a liberal one.

Emirates already operates two daily flights into Amsterdam Schiphol (one with the Airbus A380 and the other with the Boeing 777-300ER). The second A380 will operate flights EK149 and EK150.

It is true that the superjumbo will not offer a huge capacity increase in the same way as Qatar Airways intends (see news December 30, 2015), but the A380 confers kudos to an airport in a way that no other aircraft can.

Emirates’ A380s will be up against the single daily flight (on the Amsterdam-Dubai route) operated by KLM.

The Dutch carrier is operating a brand new B787-9, and although it may be competitive in the business class stakes, reader feedback reveals it is no match for the A380 when it comes to economy class.

In addition KLM does not offer first class and its “premium economy” product is essentially just normal economy with extra legroom.

Let the best man win.

emirates.com

Alex McWhirter

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