Wow! Emirates will be adding a second daily A380 flight between Los Angeles and Dubai as of July 1, 2016. That’s huge.
Emirates A380 at LAX
Emirates’ current A380 frequency between Dubai and Los Angeles operates with the following schedule:
EK215 Dubai to Los Angeles departing 8:55AM arriving 1:55PM
EK216 Los Angeles to Dubai departing 4:45PM arriving 7:35PM (+1 day)
The second daily A380 frequency, being added in July 2016, will operate with the following schedule:
EK217 Dubai to Los Angeles departing 3:00PM arriving 8:00PM
EK218 Los Angeles to Dubai departing 10:30PM arriving 1:30AM (+2 days)
The date of the second daily A380 flight to Los Angeles being added coincides with Emirates removing the A380 from their Dubai to Houston route. They’ll be downgrading the Houston flight to a Boeing 777-300ER, presumably due to decreased demand in the oil industry.
The new flight nicely complements Emirates’ existing frequency, and is especially useful for those with connections in Dubai (which represents a vast majority of Emirates passengers). Personally I prefer the timing of the original frequency when departing Los Angeles, as you can have a nice meal, nap, and enjoy most of the rest of the flight so you’ll be tired when you land in Dubai. My dad and I certainly enjoyed this flight in first class when we flew it about a year ago, given that this is Emirates’ longest A380 route.
More opportunities to fly Emirates on their longest A380 route
In the other direction I prefer the new frequency, though. Departing out of Dubai at 3PM rather than 9AM is awesome, as it means you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to catch the flight.
This new frequency announcement comes about a year after Emirates opened their own lounge in Los Angeles. Emirates is all about managing as much of the passenger experience as possible, so I wasn’t surprised they opened a lounge even with just one daily flight. With a second daily flight the lounge is even more worthwhile, though.
Emirates Lounge LAX
This actually represents a resumption of their second daily flight, as they used to fly to Los Angeles twice daily when they operated a 777 on the route. However, the route has been once daily since they began flying an A380 on it.
Interestingly Qatar Airways just launched daily 777-200 flights between Doha and Los Angeles as of January 1, 2016, so there’s increased competition between Los Angeles and the Middle East. Etihad also has a daily 777-200 flight — they launched that route in June 2014. Obviously Emirates’ twice daily A380 flights between Los Angeles and Dubai beat the combined efforts of Etihad and Qatar by a long shot.
For what it’s worth, as of now Emirates doesn’t seem to have any award availability on the new frequency. I suspect that will change, given the capacity they’ll have in the market with this addition. Once that happens it will represent a great use of Alaska miles (then again, there are some dates with first class award availability on the other frequency as it is).
Emirates A380 first class
Bottom line
I’m really excited about Emirates adding a second daily flight between Los Angeles and Dubai. Emirates will now have nearly 1,000 seats a day between Los Angeles and Dubai. The new frequencies are well timed for connections, given that the Los Angeles to Dubai flight lands at 1:30AM, while there are a bank of flights leaving shortly after 3AM.
This makes Los Angeles Emirates’ second US market to have more than one daily A380 frequency (New York being the other, though they typically have four daily flights).
What do you make of Emirates’ second daily A380 frequency between Los Angeles and Dubai?
Hi Ben, any chance you can confirm with EK that they have in fact downgraded the second daily flight from DXB-LAX from the A380 to a 777-300ER beginning October 1st? I can't seem to get a straight answer out of them. Thanks!
Looks like Emirates has "downgraded" flight 218 to the 777. Darn.
I am flying out EK 218 from LAX to DXB on October 28th, 2016. My booking email states that the aircraft is the Airbus A380, however when I go to manage my booking on Emirates website it states that it is a Boeing 777.
Does anyone know which one is correct?
Thanks!
Lucky, small correction: EK 215 currently departs DXB at 8:30 (not 8:55) and arrives LAX at 12:45 (not 1:55), which means getting up even earlier at the crack of dawn (which I hate). I'm on that flight in a couple of weeks and just checked my itinerary on EK's website.
No surprise that Texas is losing the 380's with the price of oil right now...
@Jon According to airlineroute.net, the A380 at DFW is being replaced with the 777-300ER from Feb 1-Aug 31, 2016 and then returning to DFW. Bummer you will just miss it.
@alexisonsmith @Dan Diversky : I have an EK flight out of DFW April 1st; booked it because it was on the A380..after reading your comment I double checked and now it's on the 777 :-(
Only took the flight because it was the A380...does anyone know when the A380 out of Houston stops?
I've checked on http://www.emirates.com/us/english/flying/our_fleet/emirates_a380/emirates_schedule/houston-dubai.aspx but the schedule isn't valid for my departure dates
Anonymous- you realize they don't use the same aircraft for the route right?
So when the LAX-DXB is in the air bound for Dubai, another aircraft is already enroute to LAX for the next day.
EK has 72 A380s. aircrafts don't fly the same route. An A380 arriving from JFK for example, doesn't go back to JFK. It might go to SYD, etc.
Off topic about schedule:
Lucky, you said that Emirates has a "daily" flight between DXB and LAX as of now, but looking at the schedule, the A380 arrives in Dubai over 24 hours after it departs Dubai, and how I know it, that would make the flight 3x/4x weekly unless the schedule differed for every day. Correct me, if needed.
Thanks for the heads up about DFW. My wife and I were scheduled for award travel in F in August on the a380, now I see it is the 777. Bummer, I wanted to try the shower/bar. I suppose there is nothing I can do.
@alexisonsmith it looks that way. http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/aviation/sky-talk-blog/article53118525.html
The thing about Emirates is that the 1am arrival likely isn't meant for those arriving in Dubai - you saw how many flights Depart at 2 and 3, and it's meant to connect to those flights. Emirates built its empire on connecting traffic, and I doubt it wants to change that strategy anytime soon.
I think this is over saturating the LA market to the Middle East despite the connections when considering that there is very little advantage for Angelenos to connect in Dubai or Doha. S.E. Asia and Australia are clearly well covered with much shorter segments on very good carriers. India is the one exception - but personally I would prefer to connect in Europe as a 16 hour flight into another connection is misery...even in Emirates...
I think this is over saturating the LA market to the Middle East despite the connections when considering that there is very little advantage for Angelenos to connect in Dubai or Doha. S.E. Asia and Australia are clearly well covered with much shorter segments on very good carriers. India is the one exception - but personally I would prefer to connect in Europe as a 16 hour flight into another connection is misery...even in Emirates First. The Big Three in the U.S. just need to work on their service, upgrade their fleets, and hunker down for a few years until the M.E. Big Three slowly bleed each other dry in saturating markets that are not going to sustain nearly 2,000 seats a day to the Middle East. Oh, wait, that's right...they are subsidized. :) Never mind.
@alexisonsmith - Say it isn't so! I was just on that flight and it was very full in biz and main cabin. F was light, but that was a plus.
I hear DFW is being replaced to a 777
Interesting! Looks like demand from LA is healthy.
Interesting! That's a lot more than the 7 departures and 450 seats out of my hometown airport...