Emirates’ superjumbo is set to return to the skies of New York, following a “significant increase” in demand.
Come October 31, one of the airline’s two former daily Dubai-New York JFK services will be reinstated. The route was dropped in June last year, with both serving A380s repositioned on to services to Toronto and Bangkok (see online news March 17).
Emirates’ president Tim Clark said the airline had been true to its promise “to return the A380 to New York as soon as demand recovered.”
Clark added that Emirates would continue to build on a resurgence in demand for air travel in the American market. US expansion plans include 11 new wide-bodied aircraft this year, including seven more A380s. The rest will be B777s.
Emirates inaugurated its A380 on the New York JFK route in August 2008 (see online news July 9), followed just two months later by a second superjumbo. But in June last year both A380s were repositioned, to be replaced by long range B777-300ERs.
The Dubai-based airline currently has eight A380s in its fleet, serving London, Paris, Jeddah, Seoul, Sydney, Auckland, Toronto and Bangkok.
The latter two destinations, added to the A380 network when the JFK aircraft were repositioned last year, will continue. It is unclear at this time whether New York will be served by one of the seven new A380s due for delivery this year, or whether it will itself be a repositioning from elsewhere in the network.
The New York JFK service will commence on October 31. Flight EK201 will depart from Dubai International at 0830, arriving in New York at 1415 the same day. The return flight, EK202, will depart at 2300 and arrive at 1945 the next day.
The second daily Dubai-New York service will continue to be served by a B777-300ER.
For more information visit emirates.com.
Report by Andrew Gough
