Set To Become The First Airline To Serve The U.S. With Twice-Daily Superjumbo Flights

Emirates Airline is set to become the first airline in the world to serve a U.S. city with a second-daily A380 service. Having been the first airline to offer an A380 commercial service to the U.S. in 2008, Emirates will increase the capacity on one of its daily flights from Dubai to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), starting January 1, 2013. The service, currently operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, will be replaced by the ultra-modern A380 aircraft, offering almost 1,000 additional seats in both directions every week.

"Emirates is experiencing very high demand for its New York flights and the start of twice daily A380 service to JFK will enable us to offer more choice for our customers to benefit from the Emirates A380 experience," said Thierry Antinori, Executive Vice President of Passenger Sales Worldwide. "Given the popularity of this giant aircraft, known for its quietness, spaciousness and award-winning on-board product, we are confident that this news will be well-received by our customers travelling to 17 destinations in the Middle East, 21 African destinations including major hubs in east Africa, 20 destinations in the Far East and Australasia and 10 destinations in India."

"We have continued to invest in our services by increasing our capacity to build on the resurgent demand for air travel within the United States and we are seeing this strategy pay dividends. Further investment in our hub, with the opening of the world's first dedicated A380 concourse – C3 – will coincide with the second JFK A380 service," said Antinori.

Emirates has the world's largest fleet of A380s with 21, which currently serve Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow, Manchester, Munich, New York JFK, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney and Toronto. Tokyo, Amsterdam and Moscow will join the A380 network in July, August and December respectively.

FMI: www.emirates.com/us