Late last year I wrote about how Emirates announced that they would introduce two cabin A380s in 2015.
While the A380 is already the highest capacity jet out there, Emirates will be taking capacity to new heights (no pun intended), as they’ll be increasing the capacity of some of the new A380s they’ve yet to take delivery of.
Emirates has already taken delivery of roughly half of the 120 A380s they have on order, and they don’t plan on reconfiguring any of their current A380s to remove first class.
Emirates’ two cabin A380s will feature a total of 615 seats, 58 of which will be in business class. In April we learned that Copenhagen will be the first destination to receive the two class A380, though in the meantime Emirates has published several more routes to receive this plane. These include:
- Dubai to Copenhagen on EK151/152 as of December 1, 2015
- Dubai to Bangkok on EK376/377 as of December 1, 2015
- Dubai to London Gatwick on EK9/10 as of January 1, 2016
- Dubai to Kuala Lumpur on EK342/343 as of January 1, 2016
Up until now we haven’t actually received any info on what the seatmaps will look like on the new A380s, though. Now AusBT has the scoop as to what we should expect.
Presently Emirates’ three class A380s feature first class at the front of the upper deck, business class throughout the rest of the upper deck, and economy on the lower deck.
With the new configuration, Emirates will be switching things up in an interesting way. The lower deck will continue to exclusively feature economy class seats. However, the upper deck is being switched up quite a bit.
Not only is Emirates cutting first class, but they’re reducing the number of business class seats from 76 to 58.
Interestingly the Emirates A380 business class seats will be towards the back of the upper deck.
That’s because Emirates will continue to offer a bar for business class passengers, and that’s most practically placed in the very rear of the cabin.
Meanwhile the front of the Emirates A380 upper deck will consist of economy seats, in a 2-4-2 configuration. That’s right, the economy seats will be in front of the business class seats, which is the first time that has been done, as far as I know.
Presumably this means there will at least be some nice lavatories for economy passengers seated on the upper deck, given that there’s the empty space which otherwise currently house the two shower suites.
Bottom line
I’m very curious to see the two cabin Emirates A380 once it’s in service. With over 600 seats it’ll be the highest capacity aircraft in the world. I can only imagine what a challenge it’ll be for the crews to work!
I do find it especially interesting that the business class cabin will be behind the economy class cabin. I’d say the upper deck economy seats on the A380 will be the best economy seats in Emirates’ fleet.
What do you make of Emirates’ two class A380 layout?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.