The aircraft arrived in Dubai in the early hours of Saturday morning, powered by a blend of conventional jet fuel and sustainable aviation fuel. Emirates is scheduled to receive two more A380 aircraft later this month, one of which will feature its long-awaited signature Premium Economy product.
Since its entry into the Emirates fleet 12 years ago, the A380 has been the airline’s flagship with Signature elements continue to be talked about around the world. The A380 currently flies to Cairo, Amman, Paris, London, Guangzhou, Manchester and Moscow and recently services have been ramped up to four daily A380s on London Heathrow and daily flights to Moscow.
Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline said: “The A380 has been a success story for Emirates, and this is reflected in the strong customer interest wherever we’ve deployed the aircraft over the years. The A380 has helped us efficiently serve customer demand at slot constrained airports and also on trunk routes, supporting our long-haul hub operations. Importantly, with the space and technology on this aircraft, we’ve been able to introduce new concepts onboard that have transformed the flying experience for the better. We look forward to introducing our Premium Economy experience on which will make its debut on an A380 in the coming months, and we will continue to invest in our world-class A380 product experience. The A380 will remain our flagship for the next decade, and we will re-deploy it on more routes as travel demand returns.”
The double-decker is also being utilised as a ‘mini-freighter’ on select cargo charter operations to transport urgently required cargo across the Emirates network. The delivery flight for the newest member of the Emirates fleet was powered by a blend of jet fuel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). This is the first time the airline is using sustainable aviation fuel to power an A380. The biofuel used for the flight was produced from used cooking oil in Finland.
Sir Tim commented on the airline’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact: “Sustainability remains very much on our agenda at Emirates. We are watching developments in sustainable aviation fuel very closely, and we look forward to a time when it can be produced at scale, and in a cost competitive manner. Our latest A380 delivery flight was partially powered by sustainable aviation fuel and this is a positive step towards reducing our overall emissions.”
Emirates is part of the Steering Committee of the Clean Skies for Tomorrow coalition, established by the World Economic Forum to promote the development of SAF. A third of Emirates’ crew transportation buses in Dubai currently are powered by biofuels, with its one of its main crew bus transport contractors adopting biofuel supplied by Neutral Fuels.
Emirates also runs a fuel monitoring system. On the ground, the airline implements fuel-efficient practices where possible. Other operating initiatives include idle reverse thrust on landing, loading efficiency improvements, aircraft weight management, and the introduction of electronic flight bags for cockpit crew.
