Emirates Makes Beijing & Shanghai All A380 Routes

a wall on a mountain

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Since November last year Emirates has operated a fleet with only Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft. There isn’t another aircraft type in there and the airline loves it’s A380s which it flys to as many destinations as it can get away with. Premium class passengers love the Emirates A380 too because, unlike on the 777, the A380 offers an excellent (if a bit bling-y) Business Class cabin which compares well with just about any other Business Class cabin out there (although I still prefer the Etihad A380 product).

an airplane with a few monitorsEmirates A380 Business Class

If Business Class is a bit bling-y for my taste just imagine what I think of the First Class cabin 🙂

a room with two monitors and a deskEmirates A380 First Class

Well, if you’re a traveler to China and you like the Emirates A380 the airline has just announced news that should he music to your ears.

From 1 July 2017 Emirates will provide an all-A380 service on its routes to Beijing and Shanghai.

As thing stand both routes operate two flights per day with both cities receiving A380 and 777-300ER service…..but the capacity on those routes is about to go up.

From 1 July this is what the Emirates schedule will look like:

Shanghai

EK302 DXB 02:50 – 15:30 PVG (Daily A380 Service)
EK304 DXB 09:40 – 22:20 PVG (Daily A380 Service) **New A380 service**

EK303 PVG 00:05 – 04:55 DXB (Daily A380 Service)
EK305 PVG 07:15 – 12:05 DXB (Daily A380 Service)**New A380 service**

Beijing

EK306 DXB 03:55 – 15:25 PEK (Daily A380 Service)
EK308 DXB 10:50 – 22:20 PEK (Daily A380 Service) **New A380 service**

EK307 PEK 00:40 – 05:00 DXB (Daily A380 Service)
EK309 PEK 07:25 – 11:35 DXB (Daily A380 Service)**New A380 service**

The Cabins

There’s quite a bit of good news here:

  1. Emirates hasn’t scheduled its high-density A380 on either of these routes – all the Emirates A380s I can see serving these cities have 14 First Class and 76 Business class seats.
  2. The Emirates 777-300ER Business Class cabin offers a truly poor seat while the A380 which is replacing it offers a vastly improved hard product.
  3. The Emirates 777-300ER Economy Class cabin offers seats that are just 17″ wide while the Economy Class seats in the A380 offer 18″ of seat width.

Emirates A380 seat info:

a screenshot of a chart

Awards & Upgrades

These should be easier to come by thanks to this aircraft swap.

By replacing the 777-300ERs with A380s Emirates is effectively adding 8 First Class seats & 34 Business Class seats per day in each direction.

Effect On Pricing

Not only is Emirates increasing the number of seats in Premium Cabins on this routes but the Economy Class capacity is increasing significantly too. The Emirates A380 had 123 more Economy Class seats than the 777-300ER it is replacing – that’s over 40% more.

I have to assume that Emirates has done its research here and knows what it’s doing….but that kind of capacity increase stands a very good chance of having a downward effect on prices. Great news for consumers.

More Information From Emirates

On Emirates flights to and from China, passengers in all classes can enjoy local Chinese cuisine, and industry-leading service from Chinese-speaking cabin crew. Passengers can also enjoy over 2,500 channels of the latest films and TV shows, including Chinese content, as well as music and games on Emirates’ ice Digital Widescreen, which has been named World’s Best Inflight Entertainment at the prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards for a record 12 years running.

Bottom Line

As far as I can tell this is all good news for travelers.

Increases in capacity should prevent prices from going up and may well help push them down and awards and upgrades may now be easier to come by.

The biggest bonus, however, will be felt by Business Class travelers who will no longer have to put up with the 1990’s era angle-flat Business Class seats the 777-3ooER offers (even the new replacement seat is behind the times). The A380 offers a much better all-around premium package….and who doesn’t want that? 🙂