Emirates’ Dubai-Melbourne route is set to go all A380 next Spring when the airline will replace flight EK408/EK409’s B777-300ER with the higher-capacity Airbus.

The upgrade to the A380 is planned to come into effect from March 25, 2018 at which point the route will gain an additional 945 seats per week. The upgrade is aimed at complementing Qantas’ upcoming Melbourne-Perth-London “Kangaroo Route” – set to launch on March 24 and for which tickets went on sale on Thursday – providing a greater number of options between Australia and Europe.

Travellers on Emirates’ Melbourne upgraded route will also be able to have “A380 to A380” connections with 18 other destinations in the UK and Europe from Dubai – good news for fans of the aircraft.

Emirates configures its A380 with 489 seats, including 14 private first class suites, 76 fully flat business class seats and 399 economy seats. First and business class passengers can also have access to the Onboard Lounge on the upper deck– which Emirates announced earlier this year that it would be revamping.

The Dubai-based carrier’s announcement comes as fellow Middle-Eastern airline Etihad looks to remove the aircraft from its own services to Melbourne from Abu Dhabi starting this October, and instead making its twice-daily Sydney service all A380.

According to routesonline.com, Etihad’s winter schedule from October 29 will see a capacity drop of nearly 200 seats on its Abu Dhabi-Melbourne service when it downgrades both of its Melbourne flights to smaller aircraft.

emirates.com