Emirates’ A380 aircraft returned to South African skies yesterday (1 February) for the start of a scheduled service between Dubai and Johannesburg. The city becomes Emirates’ 46th destination in its global network to which it flies the double decker aircraft.
The A380 offers a total of 516 seats in a three class cabin configuration, with 14 private suites in first class, 76 mini pods with lie-flat seats in business class, and 426 seats in economy class.
“Emirates operates four flights a day between the two cities with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, but due to growing demand for seats on the route, we decided to operate one of these flights with the larger A380,” said Orhan Abbas, Emirates Senior Vice-President, Commercial Operations, Africa.
The Emirates A380 is renowned for its on-board lounge on the upper deck for first and business class customers where they can socialise or relax, while those in first class enjoy the added benefit of exclusive use of the on-board shower spas to freshen up during flights. Customers travelling on the A380 will be able to access more than 2,500 channels of on-demand audio and visual entertainment on its ICE system, featuring the latest movies, music, TV programmes, podcasts and games.
Emirates first started services to South Africa 22 years ago and in addition to the four daily flights between Dubai and Johannesburg, it also offers three daily flights between Dubai and Cape Town, and a daily flight between Dubai and Durban.