Guangzhou is set to see operations from two Airbus A380 operators, as Emirates confirms that it will resume flying the giant of the skies to the Chinese city. The route will become the UAE airline’s fifth Airbus A380 route later this week.
The current pandemic decimated the aviation industry. However, the worst affected in terms of fleets were four-engined aircraft. This saw many giants such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340 largely grounded. However, its younger age didn’t spare the Airbus A380, with only China Southern operating the type right through the darkest days of the crisis. Now Emirates is in the process of reactivating its fleet.
An Airbus A380 hub?
Previously, if you wanted to see a large variety of Airbus A380s operated by different airlines, your best bets were the mega hubs such as Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, and Paris. However, with only two airlines currently operating the giant of the skies, there are now also only two airports where you will likely see more than one Airbus A380 operator.
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Throughout the current situation, Chinese airline China Southern continued flying its Airbus A380s between Guangzhou and London Heathrow. When Emirates resumed flights to London last month, the British capital became the only airport with two active Airbus A380 operators. This, unfortunately, didn’t include British Airways, who’s A380s are still stored.
However, now Emirates is resuming its Airbus A380 service to Guangzhou, home of China Southern’s Airbus A380 operations. As such, both London Heathrow and Guangzhou have A380 services from Emirates and China Southern, while all other airports only have one A380 operator, if any.
Slowly resuming its network
Emirates is slowly bringing its Airbus A380 network back to life. The airline initially resumed services with the giant of the skies to London Heathrow and Paris Charles De Gaulle. Each had a daily A380 flight.
This week, the airline also began flying its double-decker aircraft to Amsterdam and Cairo. This was supplemented by an additional daily service to London Heathrow. It is no surprise that Emirates has already resumed double daily services to the United Kingdom’s capital city. After all, before the current crisis, a quarter of the airline’s capacity went to the UK.
Now, the airline is resuming a once per week flight to Guangzhou in China from August 8th. By the end of August, Emirates hopes to have resumed services to 68 different cities around the world. This accounts for roughly 50% of its network before it was forced to suspend services in late March.
Emirates has been very clear to show that Dubai has reopened following the pandemic, and has been taking a range of intuitive steps to restore passenger confidence in travel. For example, it recently became the first airline to cover costs related to contracting COVID-19 while traveling.
Would you like to fly on one of Emirates’ Airbus A380s soon? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!