Emirates to offer A380 service to Houston and San Francisco

Emirates Airline is going to upgrade its aircraft by substituting Boeing 777-300 ERs with Airbus A380s on Dubai-San Francisco and Dubai-Houston route. The switchover will be commenced from December 1 and December 3 respectively.

The replacement with the A380 superjumbos will not only allow more passengers to travel between the two routes but also provide more cargo capacity. In premium economy the superjumbo will offer 80 percent more seats than Boeing 777-300 ERs. This new aircrafts will offer 76 fully-flat seats in business class and 14 seats in first class.

As of June 2014, the airline uses airbus A380 with 498 or 517 seats configured in three classes. For the route to Houston and San Francisco from Dubai, Airbus 380 will offer an additional 137 seats on Houston and 135 seats on San Francisco routes. This thereby will increase passenger capacity by 38 percent in these two routes. The increased economy class seats in A380 will be 401 to Houston and 399 to San Francisco.

Hubert Frach, divisional vice president Emirates, said we are witnessed increase in passenger growth from US. We have transported over 2.3 million passengers since 2007 on Houston and San Francisco routes. Our A380 superjumbo aircrafts will carry even more passengers. This will allow more travel, trade, and commerce between these important US cities and India, Africa, Middle East, and others countries where we operate.

The airline uses Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport to operate its A380 aircraft. This terminal has two concourses that can easily handle the superjumbo type aircraft. Concourse A has 18 gates and is built to operate A380 aircrafts, while Concourse B has five gates with the same capability.

The flight on San Francisco-Dubai route departs from San Francisco International Airport at 3:30 p.m. and arrives in Dubai International Airport at 7:25 p.m. the following day. The return flight departs from Dubai at 8:50 a.m. and reaches San Francisco at 12:50 p.m. The flight on Houston-Dubai route departs from Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport at 9:30 a.m. and arrives in Dubai International Airport at 4:05 p.m. The return flight leaves Dubai at 6:25 p.m. and arrives in Houston at 7:05 the next day. The flights on both these routes will operate daily.

Houston and San Francisco will be the 31st and 32nd destination that will be served by A380 aircraft. Emirates Airline has served USA since 2004. It has the maximum passenger base for Airbus A380.