Emirates makes Munich an 'all A380' route with double daily superjumbos
By David Flynn, November 14 2013
Qantas partner Emirates will upgrade Munich to two Airbus A380 flights a day next year.
From 30 March 2014 Emirates’ Dubai – Munich route will become an 'all-A380' service as one of the airline's flagship superjumbos replaces a Boeing 777-300ER on daily flight EK51/52.
The second daily A380 operation will be serviced with a three-class configuration comprising of 399 seats in Economy Class, 76 fully flat-bed, mini-pods in Business Class and 14 First Class Private Suites.
“This is a significant development for Emirates as Munich is a key airport for us in Germany and in Europe" said Thierry Antinori, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Emirates.
"Passenger demand has been steadily growing and our second A380 will add much needed seat capacity which is essential for us to meet the demand growth of the route and support the expansion of trade, tourism and international investment in Germany.
As it happens, Germany also plays a significant role in the production of the Airbus A380. German aeronautical businesses contribute to the production of the aircraft’s engines and wings along with Emirates' inflight entertainment system, lighting and onboard shower suites.
Munich, and more...
The German market was one of the big winners in the Qantas-Emirates alliance. Qantas was set to shutter its loss-making Boeing 747 flights to Frankfurt, but the deal with Emirates delivered nine direct daily flights from Dubai to Frankfurt (three times daily), Munich (twice daily), Düsseldorf (twice daily) and Hamburg (twice daily).
You'll want to fly with Emirates all the way from Australia to Germany to minimise the stop-over time spent during your stop-over at Dubai.
However, we recommend booking your Emirates flight through Qantas – as a Qantas codeshare service, with a QF flight number – in order to maximise the number of frequent flyer points you'll earn, as well as picking up more of those vital status credits.
Read: How to maximise your Qantas Frequent Flyer points on Emirates flights
You'll still be able to use your Qantas card to access many of the Emirates lounges at Dubai: Qantas Club members and Gold-class Qantas Frequent Flyers are welcome at the Emirates Business Lounge in Dubai, while Platinum and Platinum One grade Qantas Frequent Flyers can head for the Emirates First Class Lounge.
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David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
28 May 2012
Total posts 76
With 90 A380's on order, i think we will see a lot of all A380 routes.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2204
Y'know, a few years back, there was an airline simulation game that I played for a while.
Because of the mechanics of the game (crucially, fleet maximum size did not take into account aircraft size, and bigger planes always earned more money), the endgame was essentially to own a maximum-size fleet of nothing but A380s.
At the time, we panned it for being unrealistic. Looking back now, with Emirates covering the globe with A380s, it doesn't seem as silly as we thought...
10 Aug 2013
Total posts 29
What game is that? I would love to give it a shot.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Aug 2012
Total posts 2204
It was a rather poorly built Facebook game with a very generic name (you know how they're all called Airline Manager/Empires/whatever?) and its most infuriating mechanic was that you had to manually send the planes off.
I don't recommend that awful game, but if you do like a casual but serious airline sim, go for Airline Empires. It's browser based - lots of graphs and forms - and it's fun. And yes, you can build A380s.
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