Emirates will operate a one-off superjumbo service to Kuwait later this month, to celebrate the country’s 50th National Day.
The carrier will roster one of its A380s onto a regular commercial flight on February 26, with flight EK857 departing Dubai at 1455 and arriving in Kuwait at 1540. Return flight EK858 will leave Kuwait at 1810, landing back in Dubai at 2040.
The new terminal at Kuwait International Airport, opened in 2008, was made A380 operational in November last year, and Emirates will be the first carrier to fly the superjumbo into the country.
It’s not the first time that an airline has flown special A380 flights to show off its superjumbo. Lufthansa rostered its A380 onto two flights to Mallorca last year (see online news September 23, 2010), while Air France operated its superjumbo on the Paris-London route on selected dates last summer (see online new May 13, 2010), and Emirates itself flew the A380 into Birmingham in 2009 as part of the airport’s 70th anniversay celebrations (see online news July 15, 2009).
Emirates now has 15 superjumbos in its fleet, with another 75 on order. The carrier currently operates 12 destinations with the A380: London Heathrow, Paris, Seoul, Hong Kong, Sydney, Auckland, Toronto, Manchester, New York, Jeddah, Bangkok and Beijing.
For more information visit emirates.com.
Report by Mark Caswell