Emirates, the worlds largest Airbus A380
operator, will receive its milestone 100th A380 aircraft on 3 November
2017.
Over 80 million passengers have flown on the superjumbo in
the nine years since it first joined Emirates fleet.
Today, Emirates flies the A380 to over 45
destinations spanning Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, the
Middle East, and the Americas.
The A380 has been, and continues to be hugely
popular amongst our customers, many of whom deliberately plan
their travel so that they can fly on it. But we dont rest on our
laurels and continually invest to enhance our product so as to
continue offering our customers the best possible inflight
experience, said Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline. Our frequent flyers will have noticed countless improvements onboard over the years, ranging
from minor updates such as the addition of in-seat USB and HDMI ports, to bigger cabin overhauls where for instance we relocated
the central overhead luggage bins to create more spacious cabin on
the upper deck, and when we introduced bigger and better inflight
entertainment systems, amongst many other initiatives.
On
the ground, Emirates has also worked closely with stakeholders to
launch and operate an A380-dedicated airport concourse with 20
gates offering direct boarding from the airport lounge, and one of
the worlds most advanced engineering centres which include six
heavy maintenance hangars, paint shops, and the capability to
completely overhaul an A380.
Emirates also introduced the worlds
first 2-class configured A380 in November 2015, making it the
highest-capacity plane in the world with 615 seats on board.
Industry Firsts
With its inaugural A380 flight in 2008, Emirates
introduced several industry firsts including its iconic A380
Onboard Lounge and First Class Shower spa.
The Onboard
Lounge remains one of the biggest draws of the aircraft to date,
and is arguably the most popular spot at 40,000 feet. It has gone
through several successive and subtle changes, such as the
introduction of electric window blinds, before a brand new look
was unveiled last July.
The latest makeover of the Onboard
Lounge, inspired by private yacht cabins, features a more intimate
and social area for up to 26 guests. The lounge now has a larger
55 inch LCD screen with surround sound speakers giving customers
the latest flight information, or live TV broadcasts of the latest
news or sports updates.
The First Class Shower spa,
catering exclusively for the 14 passengers travelling in Emirates
First Class private suites, continue to generate as much curiosity
and buzz today as when first launched. Since Emirates blazed a
trial for the ultimate shower spa experience, only one other
commercial airline has offered a similar facility in the sky. With
nearly 100 A380s in its fleet, safe to say that if anyone is
taking a shower at 40,000 feet, chances are its on an Emirates
A380.
With its many thoughtful design touches including a
heated floor, shower timer, a hairdryer, and spa products,
Emirates Onboard Shower spa remains the standard to beat for
inflight luxury. The airline recently introduced sustainable VOYA
spa products and exclusively-developed moisturizing pyjamas,
allowing customers to arrive at their destination refreshed.
ICE - IFE
Emirates inflight
entertainment system, ice, has also been constantly updated to
provide customers with more choices for on demand entertainment as
well as improvements to the viewing experience.
While the
equipment has become smaller, media capacity has only expanded and
Emirates now provides more than double the entertainment with
2,500 channels of blockbuster movies, TV box sets, music and
documentaries.
In addition to choice, Emirates has invested
close to US$1 billion on hardware to provide a more comfortable
viewing experience. Over the years, in-seat screens have been made
larger across all classes.
The screen in First Class has increased
from 27 inches to 32 inches, the screens in Business Class from 17
inches to 20 inches, while screens on the latest A380 aircraft
offer the industrys largest in Economy at 13.3 inches from its
original 10 inch screen. Little touches have also been introduced
including USB ports for power and data in each seat as well as
HDMI ports in premium classes to connect personal devices to the
ice screen.
The entire A380 fleet has also been fitted with
connectivity to allow for free 20mb of Wi-Fi throughout the cabin,
and in June of last year, the first A380 was fitted with Live TV allowing
passengers to watch news and sports matches live on board.
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