Emirates has announced that it will be upgrading one of its four daily flights between Dubai and Johannesburg to an Airbus A380-800 from 1st February 2017.
Emirates currently uses Boeing 777 aircraft for each of the four daily flights between the two cities, making it the busiest route in the airline’s African network with over three million passengers carried in the last five years. Once launched, Johannesburg will join more than 40 destinations in Emirates’ extensive global network that is served by its flagship A380 aircraft.
The A380 will offer 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 spacious seats in Economy Class. It will be deployed on the first flight of the day, EK761, and will depart Dubai at 04h40 and arrive in Johannesburg at 10h55. The return flight, EK762, will depart Johannesburg at 13h25 and arrive in Dubai at 23h45.
With four flights a day between the two cities, Emirates provides both inbound and outbound customers with more choice and flexibility when planning their travel, and enables convenient and seamless connections for travellers from Johannesburg to destinations across the airline’s global network, especially in Europe, West Asia, the United States and the Far East, with just one stop at its modern and comfortable Dubai hub.
Emirates first started services to South Africa 21 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, enabling global connectivity for South African travellers through its worldwide network of more than 150 destinations.
The A380 service will be operated as codeshare with South African Airways as with all other Emirates’ services to South Africa.
Emirates, which is the world’s largest operator of A380s with 81 currently in its fleet and a further 61 on order, serves some of the world’s most popular destinations with the aircraft, which amongst others include New York, Los Angeles, London Heathrow, Madrid, Munich, Barcelona, Paris, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney and Auckland.