[PICTURES] Emirates A380 makes a one-off visit to Pakistan on July 8

[Arham_PakFan]

Emirates on Tuesday announced that it will deploy a one-off A380 service to Islamabad on July 8, 2018, with the airline's iconic double-decker making its inaugural arrival in Islamabad on a special flight EK2524/EK2525.

The A380 flight will depart Dubai at 8am and arrive in Islamabad at 12.10pm. The flight will depart Islamabad at 3.40pm, arriving in Dubai at 5.45pm on the same day.

"We are proud to bring our flagship A380 aircraft to Islamabad and we look forward to showcasing our innovative products on board this iconic aircraft with the signature Emirates service. While this is a special flight, we are very keen to launch a scheduled A380 service to Pakistan and will continue to work with authorities to realise these plans," said Sheikh Majid Al Mualla, divisional senior vice-president, commercial operations centre, Emirates.

The Emirates A380 aircraft on this special one-off service will be in a two-class configuration offering seats in economy class and seats in business class as well as Emirates' onboard lounge. Passengers in all classes enjoy free Wi-Fi.

Emirates and Pakistan have a shared history tracing back over 30 years when the airline's flight landed in Karachi on October 25, 1985. In the last three decades, Emirates has progressively expanded its operations and offering global connectivity to Pakistan's major cities including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Sialkot, and Multan.

Emirates currently has 104 A380s in service and 58 pending delivery, more than any airline globally. The airline also recently announced a $16 billion deal for 36 additional Airbus A380 aircraft.

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/business/aviation/emirates-a380-to-fly-to-pakistan-on-july-8

 

[Saj]

Excellent airline Emirates. Keep on getting better.

Very few people with bad words to say about this airline.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

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[MenInG]

Big day in Pak aviation history but hope this will become a regular thing

 

[MenInG]

 

[msb314]

Excellent airline Emirates. Keep on getting better.

Very few people with bad words to say about this airline.

My only complaint with Emirates is that it is not part of any airline alliance

 

[gani999]

I won't be surprised if EK start a regular A380 service to destinations in Pakistan. They have too many A380s and don't know where to fly them to. They seem to be putting them everywhere.

And destinations in Pakistan like ISB, LHE and KHI, from which considerable demand to Dubai exist, would be obvious places to fly the whale to.

The only loser as always, would be PIA.

 

[MenInG]

 

[Pakistanian]

I won't be surprised if EK start a regular A380 service to destinations in Pakistan. They have too many A380s and don't know where to fly them to. They seem to be putting them everywhere.

And destinations in Pakistan like ISB, LHE and KHI, from which considerable demand to Dubai exist, would be obvious places to fly the whale to.

The only loser as always, would be PIA.

It's ironic cause PIA helped build emirates.

 

[MenInG]

Emirates could introduce its Airbus A380 fleet to the Pakistan market, conversations with officials suggest, with the airline hinting at the possibility through a guarded statement that it “would love for passengers to experience the service onboard the aircraft”.

The Dubai airline, which has championed the Airbus A380 as the backbone of its global airline network, has a total of 115 in its fleet with another five pending delivery, according to information available on its website.

The wide-body A380, the world’s largest passenger jet, has been described in the industry as a ‘hotel in the sky’, but many airlines see it as an inefficient and unprofitable burden on their income statement.

In a recent conversation with Business Recorder, Mohammed Alhashmi, Emirates Vice-President Pakistan and the de-facto CEO for the country, said Pakistan remains an important market where scaling up of services is in the offing, a statement that coincides with easing of the coronavirus pandemic situation as well as more relaxed travel guidelines.

“With the easing of travel restrictions, we look forward to enhancing capacity and scaling up our passenger services,” Mohammed told Business Recorder. “This is a very exciting market and we are confident travel demand will gradually bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.”

Pakistan recently allowed international flight operations at full capacity from November 10, revising also its earlier guidelines on travel restrictions.

The news was hailed by the airline industry that has seen a tumultuous 20 or so months, watching harrowing empty airports.

Emirates, like all airlines, endured the uncertainty. The airline flew 6.55 million passengers in the 2020-21 financial period, down over 88% when compared with 56.16 million in the pandemic-free 2019-2020, according to its latest annual report.

Its profit of Dh1.06 billion (around $290 million) in 2019-20 turned into a loss of Dh20.3 billion (around $5.5 billion) the following year, its first one in over three decades.

The situation prompted an injection of $3.1 billion from its owner, the UAE government, while dnata, part of the Emirates Group, tapped various industry support programmes and availed a total relief of nearly Dh800 million during 2020-21. The airline also got a further Dh2.5 billion ($ 681 million) in state support in the first half of 2021 — the third time since the pandemic started that equity was injected into the airline.

However, as the world recovers from the coronavirus horror, the numbers’ situation seems to be improving as well.

The airline still posted a $1.6-billion loss in the first half of the financial year, but revenue was up 86% to $5.9 billion, and the loss compares to $3.4 billion during the same period last year.

Mohammed said the airline was confident of a smooth recovery. “We are readying ourselves for the rebound of certain travel segments including Hajj and Umrah.”

The A380s

While Airbus, maker of the wide-body A380 that is the world’s largest passenger jet, ended production of the plane in 2019, 12 years after it started, Emirates continues to place faith in the aircraft now being dubbed as too costly to operate, a situation worsened with the onset of the pandemic.

The aircraft has proven popular with passengers, which Emirates argues is a key attraction for its customers.

"Emirates will continue to be the largest operator of this spacious and modern aircraft for the next two decades," Emirates President Tim Clark said in a September 1 statement, reported by Reuters.

But while A380s on Pakistan runways could still take some time, with airport infrastructure being somewhat of a constraint, Emirates said that it is focusing on gaining back the passengers that were ‘locked down’.

“For now, we’re committed to restoring our network and to safely operating 60 weekly flights to five points in Pakistan, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar and Sialkot,” said Mohammed.

“We would love for our passengers to experience the service we offer onboard the Emirates A380. We have recently deployed our Emirates A380 on more routes.”

Business model agility

The coronavirus, while exposing some countries’ fragile health systems, also put many businesses’ agility to the test. The airline industry, hardly known this quality, was among the worst-hit.

However, Mohammed said since the start of the pandemic, Emirates adapted operations to meet the needs of the changing business environment.

“This included ramping up cargo operations and introducing passenger freighter services, and ‘mini freighters’ - Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with seats removed from the economy class to make more room for transporting cargo and essential supplies worldwide.”

The annual report for 2020-21 also suggested the situation with the logistics and supply-chain business was not that dire. Emirates transported 1.87 million tonnes of cargo in 2020-21, compared with 2.39 million tonnes in the previous year.

Its business, said Mohammed, helped facilitate trade and transport essential medical supplies into Pakistan.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/4013...hints-at-introducing-iconic-a380s-in-pakistan

 

[Itachi]

I thought emirates would have been the biggest and richest airline in the world. But it turns out, some Chinese airlines are at the top. How did that happen?

 

[PakLFC]

I thought emirates would have been the biggest and richest airline in the world. But it turns out, some Chinese airlines are at the top. How did that happen?

Coz the incredibly corrupt Sheikh's keep all the money themselves!!

 

[Giannis]

I thought emirates would have been the biggest and richest airline in the world. But it turns out, some Chinese airlines are at the top. How did that happen?

China is a HUGE economy but even then I wouldn't say their airlines are better than the Gulf carriers, Chinese airlines are big cause of their strong internal market and that's why no one can name a chinese airline but every has heard of Qatar, Emirates and Etihad

 

[Napa]

I thought emirates would have been the biggest and richest airline in the world. But it turns out, some Chinese airlines are at the top. How did that happen?

Not sure where you are getting your data from. The world's 4 largest airlines by most criteria (revenues, number of passengers flown etc.) are all American.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_airlines_in_the_world#By_passengers_carried