Emirates is by far the world’s largest operator of the A380, as the airline has 110 of these planes in their fleet. Emirates exclusively has 777s and A380s in their fleet, so they fly very big planes on everything ranging from some of the world’s shortest flights, to some of the world’s longest flights.
Emirates’ existing A380 routes
As it stands, the airline operates the world’s longest and shortest regularly scheduled A380 routes. The longest is their Dubai to Auckland flight (8,824 miles), while the shortest is their Dubai to Kuwait City flight (530 miles).
In the past Emirates regularly operated the A380 between Dubai and Doha, which was just a 235 mile flight, but given the Gulf blockade, they don’t fly to Qatar anymore.
Emirates’ new shortest A380 flight
Emirates has announced that they’ll fly the A380 twice daily between Dubai and Muscat as of July 1, 2019. At just 217 miles, this will be the world’s shortest regularly scheduled A380 flight.
More specifically, the following frequencies will be operated by the A380:
EK862 Dubai to Muscat departing 8:25AM arriving 9:40AM
EK863 Muscat to Dubai departing 11:15AM arriving 12:25PM
EK864 Dubai to Muscat departing 4:10PM arriving 5:25PM
EK865 Muscat to Dubai departing 7:05PM arriving 8:15PM
As you can see, all of these flights are blocked at 70-75 minutes, though the actual flight times are regularly half of that.
Interestingly while this is the first regularly scheduled A380 service between Dubai and Muscat, it’s not the first time Emirates has flown an A380 to Oman.
On July 1, 2018 — exactly a year before this service is commencing — Emirates flew an A380 to Muscat as a one-off. Emirates often does this before announcing regularly scheduled A380 service to an airport to test out operations, and I’m guessing that’s why we saw that.
Emirates has among my favorite A380s out there. Unfortunately I fear that this very short flight will be too short for first class passengers to use Emirates’ incredible first class shower spa…
And also too short for business class passengers to socialize at Emirates’ onboard bar…
Bottom line
The way Emirates utilizes their fleet really is unlike anything you’ll find at any other airline. Seeing the world’s biggest jet operate a flight that covers just over 200 miles and takes just a bit over half an hour is impressive.
I am really curious whether the full service which including the amenities kits and etc to be provided for first class passengers?
@Nate
The travelling demands between the two destinations are too big for small planes.
Big planes will do.
@Caroline - Dubai has VAT now.
Cheaper and faster to have smaller planes doing that route.
That's why I love emirates first class.
Emirates flew the A380 to MCT last year on July 1 to celebrate 25yrs of operating there. It had nothing to do with operational readiness. It was to show their commitment to the country/city and good PR. This new A380 has nothing to do with commercial feasibility either. It's strictly for pilot check rides. Cheaper to do a check ride on a revenue turn to MCT than operate a non-revenue check from DXB/DWC. I wouldn't...
Emirates flew the A380 to MCT last year on July 1 to celebrate 25yrs of operating there. It had nothing to do with operational readiness. It was to show their commitment to the country/city and good PR. This new A380 has nothing to do with commercial feasibility either. It's strictly for pilot check rides. Cheaper to do a check ride on a revenue turn to MCT than operate a non-revenue check from DXB/DWC. I wouldn't be surprised if they start doing more of these as they have plenty more A380s coming and a lot of pilots too. Maybe they can fly AUH to feed a bank in DXB. Instead of the livery of Sheikh Zayed waving on the side, they could have the grim reaper to stir up the EY people!
I've flown Fly Dubai from Dubai to Muscat. It was a 35 minute flight. Hopefully, Emirates anticipates the volume to meet the capacity of the A380.
@Memento. They're stupid and you're on a blog chasing a few points? Hmmmmm...
Best Airline in the world.
@caroline
Let’s ask their poorly paid service staff with very few legal rights from Southeast Asia, Africa and the Indian Subcontinent how nice they are to them.
Emiratis and people of Oman are wealthy and like the best of the best so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they ll fill the Emirates A 380s to quickly go to beautiful and friendly Oman 's capital city of Muscat and to Dubai for shopping(Tax free gigantic shopping malls )
Emiratis also like to do things with their big families ,like 15 to 30 people of the same family (cousins,grand parents,children etc) and...
Emiratis and people of Oman are wealthy and like the best of the best so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they ll fill the Emirates A 380s to quickly go to beautiful and friendly Oman 's capital city of Muscat and to Dubai for shopping(Tax free gigantic shopping malls )
Emiratis also like to do things with their big families ,like 15 to 30 people of the same family (cousins,grand parents,children etc) and people from Oman too so it makes sense.
Readers who made nasty comments not knowing the countries or the context are a bunch of ignorants & idiots.
@Frederik, Dubai does not have mountains of oil.... in fact, California produces more oil than Dubai.
It will burn more fuel while taxiing on the ground than in-flight to Muscat. Clowns on government subsidies.
The reader comments are weird. If the airline finds it feasible to run the service, then why do others think its stupid?
rich
It is easier to pay for them when you are literally on mountains of oil.
Will the plane be anywhere near capacity? Seems totally stupid to me. Get American Eagle to handle the route.
I guess I shouldn't but I find it mind boggling that a country that small has 110 A380s.
@Lucky - EK have dropped the daily A380 flight to Kuwait City from mid-2017. At present, their shortest A380 flight is the one to Riyadh.
They're better off flying the A380 on longer routes to cities like Dallas. Bunch of idiots