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Emirates Inaugurates A380 on Sixth U.S. Route

An Emirates Airbus A380 at Dubai International Airport (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Hisham Qadri)

Boston became the latest recipient of Airbus A380 service from Emirates Airline on Saturday as the airline begins its upgraded service on the Dubai to Boston route for the summer. The sixth city to receive A380 service from Emirates, Boston joins New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Houston and San Francisco, making Emirates the largest operator of A380 routes to the U.S, at least for the summer.

The world’s largest operator of the A380 with over 100 in its fleet, Emirates was the first airline to fly an A380 to Boston back in 2017 when the airport became capable of handling the double-decker aircraft through infrastructure enhancements. Now, the two have come full circle with Emirates finally introducing scheduled service to Boston with the aircraft.

The A380 will serve the route until Sept. 30 when the peak summer season ends and the Boeing 777-300ER that previously served the route will once again take over. Disappearing from Boston for the fall, the A380 will pick back up on the route from Dec. 1 until Jan. 31, 2020 for the busy winter travel season.

The first flight of the new A380 summer service departed Dubai International Airport Saturday morning for its near-14 hour transatlantic jaunt to Boston’ Logan International Airport. Touching down shortly after 2 p.m. on Boston’s Runway 4R, the airport had officially received its second scheduled Airbus A380 service. British Airways’ Airbus A380 service from London had touched down less than an hour earlier.

Emirates has served Boston since 2014, though primarily with the Boeing 777-300ER, Emirates’ largest dual engine aircraft. Even though Emirates once served Beantown with twice daily services on the aircraft, it never saw consistent A380 service from Emirates until now, even after the airport became capable of accepting the aircraft.

Part of the reason behind the lack of A380 can be attributed to Emirates reducing capacity on the route by half in 2017, the same year that Boston became A380 ready. Two years later, however, Boston is finally receiving the aircraft on a scheduled basis, a hopeful sign for the airport. Should the aircraft do well during the summer and winter seasons, Emirates may decide to extend the A380’s tenure in Boston to year-round, but that is yet to be seen.

With this new upgrade, though, the Dubai to Boston route is nearing the end of its progression. As Emirates views A380 service as the highest aircraft a destination with an A380 capable aircraft can achieve, Boston is nearly there. The A380 has the largest capacity, specifically premium capacity, out of any aircraft in the Emirates fleet. Should the route see year-round A380 service from Emirates, the route would truly be at its highest point.

Thomas Pallini

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  • Thomas Pallini

    Tom has been flying for as long as he can remember. His first flight memory was on a Song Airlines 757 flying from LaGuardia to Orlando. Back then, he was afraid to fly because he thought you needed to jump off the plane in order to get off. Some years later, Tom is now a seasoned traveler, often flying to places just for the fun of it. Most of the time, he'll never leave the airport on his trips. If he's not at home or at work as a Line Service Technician at Long Island MacArthur Airport, he's off flying somewhere, but only for the day.

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