An Emirates Boeing 777-300ER – Photo: Emirates
In October of 2013, Emirates Airline became the first “Fifth Freedom” carrier to fly between New York City and Milan in Italy. This allowed a stop between New York and Dubai in the Italian city would help to increase services between not only Italy and Dubai, but also the United States and Italy.
Unfortunately, that service has barely been in operation seven months, and Emirates has come under fire from competing airlines, leading to the possible cancellation of the route.
Emirate Airline’s Network Control at DXB. Image: Jason Rabinowitz.
Dubai International Airport (DXB) is a hugely complex, massive, 24-hour machine. Airplanes land, passengers are exchanged, and airplanes takeoff. What goes on behind the scenes to make this seemingly simple task work, however, is anything but simple. Earlier this year, National Geographic UK took their cameras into the depths of Dubai’s airport, giving the public a rare look at operations at the home airport of Emirates.
BONUS: Photo Tour of Emirates Airline Crew Training in Dubai
The show aired several months ago in various regions, but never made it to the Americas. What the channel guide hides from us, YouTube reveals – all ten episodes are now streaming in HD for anyone to watch. The first episode of the show starts off quite nicely, focusing on the difficulty of getting passengers with short connections across the gigantic terminal, routine mechanical difficulties, and a scramble to finish up construction of a new wing of the terminal.
A smattering of airline pajamas… how many is to many? – Photo: Mal Muir | AirlineReporter.com
With so much talk in the past of pajamas in first and business classes, another story on pajamas was due, right? You’re not sick of it all yet, are you? If you do not remember the previous stories, feel free to take a look:
Why is looking at pajamas something important? I feel they are a link to the past of almost all airlines having high-end service and they are an aspect of an airline’s premium cabin that often get overlooked. There are a few more that I have been able to check out, and I wanted to share my thoughts.
An Emirates Airbus A380 at the new concourse in Dubai.
An excerpt from David Parker Brown’s story on APEX Editor’s Blog:
DUBAI: How does one go about making the world’s largest airliner, the Airbus A380, look small? Park it at the new Concourse A at Dubai International Airport, which was designed to handle the giant aircraft and all the high-end passengers who will fly in its premium cabins.
Earlier this year Emirates and Dubai International Airport opened the new concourse. David Parker Brown, a contributor to the APEX editor’s blog was invited for a tour of the Emirates Airline first and business class lounges.
Concourse A opened on 2 January 2013 and is the world’s only dedicated and purpose built concourse for the Airbus A380. The rest of the airport is able to handle the aircraft, but the new concourse was purpose-built with the A380 in mind. A formidable undertaking for the airport and airline, US$3.3 billion terminal required 159,572,880 man-hours to build.
Continue reading Emirates Shows Off Lounges in New Airbus A380 Concourse on APEX
See more photos of the Concourse A in Dubai
The ground is painted to prepare for an Airbus A380 at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Photo by Brandon Farris.
For most passengers, they probably do not notice the painted lines below the planes at the gate showing where the front wheel should be for different aircraft types. But for an AvGeek, it is always fun to see what aircraft a gate can handle.
Currently, there are no Airbus A380 aircraft flown into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), but will that change soon? This week, three gates at the South Terminal had “A380” painted on the ground, but why? Sigh… turns out still no A380 service — for now.
“Yes, that is an A380 spot,” Perry Cooper Airport Media and Public Affairs Manager for SEA explained to AirlineReporter.com. “It is marked just for emergency purposes. That would be the space we’d park it. We do have a couple of other spots marked for it in the cargo area.”
Perry also pointed out the the airport does not have the facilities, such as double jet bridges, to handle the A380 on anything more than an emergency basis. The airport is planning on only having one gate prepared for the A380 and will be making the decision which one of the gates (S11, S15, S16) will make the cut.
Currently, there are only two airlines operating the Boeing 747-400 out of Seattle (Eva Air and British Airways — and Delta starting later this year) and having additional opportunities to spot large birds is always welcomed.
Although short-term we will unlikely see an A380 flying out of SEA, that could change in the future. There are three airlines that operate the A380 and also fly to Seattle: Emirates, Lufthansa and Korean Air. If one of them would start A380 operations, but my guess would be Emirates. But at this time, the airport states that they are not in talks with any airlines on starting A380 service.
Seattle continues to grow with additional international traffic to Asia and Europe and I could see the demand for the A380 happening in the future.
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This story written by…David Parker Brown, Editor & Founder.
David started AirlineReporter.com in the summer of 2008, but has had a passion for aviation since he was a kid. Born and raised in the Seattle area (where he is currently based) has surely had an influence and he couldn’t imagine living anywhere else in the world.
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